House Hunting; The Neverending Saga

Part of what sucks about looking for a house is that even when you fall in love, there are other variables besides the house itself, and the biggest one is crime. My husband is a scaredy cat when it comes to crime, but that's okay because it grounds me. I'd personally say yes to ANY house, because I grew up in an area full of crime. I got our lucky, but he's right in that it's best to avoid that. Unfortunately, when you're 2 twenty-somethings who make a little under 100 grand a year, that limits the amount of houses we can qualify for. We're not broke, but we're not loaded either. We can't afford a nice little 300k starter home. All of the homes we're looking at are in the 120k range, and that comes with a price.

Yesterday, Willy and I went with his grandmother to Manassas. We lived there, so we thought it would be okay. Saw three gorgeous brick homes. Would have been perfect, EXCEPT.. yep. Crime. And you know what sucks? The place was full of minorities. Indians, black, Latino, a few white people sprinkled throughout.. I felt very comfortable there. Willy didn't. He wanted to be wrong about how he felt, because despite his discomfort, he held out hope that the place wasn't full of crime. But then I checked last year's crime report from the Manassas police department, and wouldn't you know it, the area we were looking in had more break-ins, assaults, rapes, and everything you wouldn't want while starting up your family.

What annoys me is that people keep telling me I need to look in white neighborhoods. Better resale value, less crime, better schools, more expensive. Why is it minorities carry this stigma? Even areas people would consider to be "white trash" have less crime. It's not fair that we do this to ourselves. It's not fair that I have to look at neighborhoods with predominantly white populations, because they will be safer. And it's not fair that despite the fact that Willy and I work two full-time professional jobs, we can't afford anything decent.

At this point, we could afford to live in a luxury apartment, in the "good side of town", for more than a mortgage would cost. It's been 6 months, and we're still living at his parents' house. We're not broke. We're just not rich. What do we do, at this point? Give up and get an apartment? It just makes me sick and depressed.