75,193
What typically happens here is after you make a down payment, you're binded by a contract the same such as one you would be in if you rented for 12 or 18 months. If you have the money to throw down for the first part, as long as your job is stable, you will be just fine. After the health care law passed, a lot of employers made it so that you cannot work full-time because they don't want to pay for your health insurance; so lots of people have to work 2-3 different jobs to make the bills.
Commute times here are significantly longer than any place in the US except for New York, Washington, and Massachusetts, so you will pay a LOT more in fuel cost just to get to work. The result is that you can never save any money to buy a house when working on minimum wage jobs, usually because something goes wrong with your car eventually and thus you have to pay that bill to continue to work to continue to survive just barely on an apartment cost.
Source: My sisters and half-brother.
