Someday, I'm going to buy a house...

For the last three years, I've been saying that I would buy a house... next year. Then this year, I started saying I would buy a house and that I would start next month. Now I've been saying I'll start next week. So I'm getting closer.

I actually took the first two steps - I got the phone number of a realtor that a good friend used (along with a list of house-hunting advice from his girlfriend), and I applied for a mortgage online from my credit union.

I'm wondering if I would have been better off applying in person or over the phone - they use the same form for everthing from $300 personal loans to mortgages. It felt odd to put that large a number in a form with "minimum $300" next to the loan amount. Plus, I wasn't sure if they wanted total amount borrowed or total cost of the house (ie including down payment). I figure they will call though, so at least I've started the ball rolling.

Then once I get the mortgage lined up, I can start house hunting. Then once I find a house, I gotta deal with packing and moving. When I start thinking of these things I start wondering if this whole buying a house is worth it.

Then again, it would be nice to live somewhere where I don't have to park a block away, where people don't hustle me for change on my way back from work, where I don't see the blinking lights of Baltimore City "believe 24/7" cameras from my back window, and where I can use the microwave and coffee pot at the same time without blowing a fuse.