House talk

Lately I have been thinking a lot about our future, mainly houses! When we moved here to Indiana we decided to rent a house since we knew nothing about the area or the market out here. We found a house online that fit our criteria but we never even got to se it before we moved here. We like our house, it's big and the kids have tons of room to run around! There are a few things that I really don't like, the main one is location. Because it's on a golf course, the majority of people in this neighborhood are retired. My poor kids haven't met any friends :( Also, Andy has found himself driving into he city most days which takes about 1 HR or more with traffic. Basically, if we could pick our house up and move it closer to downtown in a more family friendly area that would be perfect!! Obviously, that is not possible so now we have to consider moving... Again.... The thing that frustrates me most is that real estate here is so cheap, and we could serioulsy buy our dream home for 150,000-175,000, which would be cheaper than rent! The problem is we don't really know where Andy's job will take us in the comin years. I don't know if we are ready to buy something here, and then get a job opportunity somewhere else down the road. When you work in the sports industry, moving is inevitable really. The job he has now could likely be the first of many as he works his way up in the industry. So, you can see why I am battling the idea of buying a house vs renting. I will tell you one thing. I hate white walls and not being able to decorate MY house the way I want. It's hard being away from everyone here, and coming home to a boring house that I can't make my own... It's killing me! The plan as it's stands now is start looking for a new rental house around July (we won't move in until September when our lease is up). We want to know where we will be living by the time school starts in August! I can't believe Dallin will be in Kindergarten! But, I will continue tossing around the idea of buying a house...