That's That...

So, I had the appointment with the FHA lender on Friday afternoon. There's good news and there's bad news (and the bad news wasn't so bad that it ruined the rest of my weekend). First the good news: the super-nice mortgage consultant that I spoke with crunched the numbers, and it turns out that I do absolutely qualify for an FHA loan!! Yay - the federal government likes me!! Then there's the bad news: I have a not-so-great "debt to income ratio". What is a debt to income ratio? Well, apparently the way the government decides how much money they can safely loan you is that they add up all the debt payments you make per month and divide it by your monthly income. If the resulting number is too high (or low - I'm not actually sure which) they classify you as being high-risk, and the amount of money they can lend you drops. In my case, I make monthly payments on a car, student loans and a credit card. Now while I have an excellent credit score and I handle these payments without any problem, the government thinks that a house would be too much for me to handle. Well, at least a decent house. I do qualify for about $165,000 in loan money, but in my area of the country that will basically get me a "unique fixer-upper" in a really, really bad neighborhood! So, that as they say is that. I'll do some further checking and see if there are any other possibilities for someone in my situation, but its doubtful. Unless a not-too-dilapidated house in a safe neighborhood for under $165,000 shows up on the market in the near future, it looks like I'm going to renting for a while longer. Bummer.