Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Does it make sense to buy a house in my situation?
Short answer: NO.  Do NOT buy a house.  Houses are a "luxury" good (see Why is a house not an investment?).  Although the experience of the early 2000s seemed to convince most people otherwise, houses are not an investment.  Historically, it has usually been cheaper to rent, because owning a house has non-pecuniary benefits such as the ability to change things around to exactly the way you like them.  Consult a rent vs. buy calculator for your area to see if your area is exceptional.  I also would not rely on the mortgage interest deduction for the long term, as it seems increasingly likely the Federal government will do away with it at some point. The first thing you must do is eliminate your credit card and other debts.  Try to delay paying your lawyers and anyone else who is not charging you interest (or threatening to harm you in other ways) as long as possible.  Save enough money to maintain your current standard of living for 6 months should you lose your job, then put the rest in your 401(k). Another word of advice: learn to live with less.  Your kids do not need separate bedrooms.  Hopefully one day the time will come when you can afford a larger house, but it should not be your highest priority.  You and your kids will all be worse off in the end should you have unexpected financial difficulties and you have overextended yourself to buy a house. Now that your credit score is up, see if you can renegotiate your credit card loans or negotiate a new loan with lower interest.