How to make $150k in a year

[dfrecore]

You can't get a loan with 10% down, and 50% of your income used for housing costs: lenders will let you go to 33% (maybe 36% max) housing ratio, but they include principal, interest, taxes & insurance.

You also can't get a loan for a house that's not move-in ready in most cases (except for maybe appliances): lenders want to make sure that the house is livable, and all repairs must be done before you can close on the house.

My kid is in the market for either buying a house or renting, and right now (we are in a hot area), home prices have somewhat stabilized, and there aren't a lot of bidding wars any more, but we are still in a building boom, and lots of new homes and townhomes going up everywhere. Rental prices are coming down every month; they're averaging $100 less than they were just 6 weeks ago.