We're currently in escrow right now on a 400k 1300sqft home. We're in California and the county is pretty rural but the area we want to live in is the highest HCOL in the county however there are better kept neighborhoods, great schools, wellmaintained parks, etc. Our income is 120k and we take home about 8400 a month net. Our mortgage is going to be 3200 and were locked in at 7.12%. Not the best rate but we have excellent credit so our PMI is only $50 which suprised me. We have no debt beside my student loan. We're putting 5% down and will have 25k for emergency fund. The house is a mild fixer upper mostly comestic walls doors etc and a few big items like a broken window and barebones yard but roof and big money stuff are good.

We have 1 toddler and are expecting another in a few months. Our apt lease ends in the beginning of this year and this home which was literally on the market for a few hours before I saw it will hopefully be a godsend as we've been looking for a few months.

If you're looking to buy soon I suggest getting in touch with a good realtor ASAP so they can help guide you if your a FTHB. I think the car payments are probably your biggest burdens. Money would be extremely tight for us if we still had ours. We can make having two kids and a house work as we have help from family as well but paying 1k in cars would be difficult. If your not on a timeline to have kids real soon then I suggest paying off the rest of your debt and saving up as much as you can before buying a home. Its probably nice to have a place without kids but I feel like it would be a waste of so much space and money especially at the prices were seeing right now. Also consider property taxes, ours is higher due to the area.

Honestly though if you're not financially inept which it doesnt like you are you'll be fine. You will find a way to make it work.