"start with a condo" - how does this benefit anything? I have a townhome right now , with decent equity but to upgrade it into an SFR at current prices and interest rates sounds like it would be suicide. can you explain the reasoning behind starting with a condo? Ive had my townhome for 4 yrs now

Id be giving up a 2.9% rate for probably a 6%+ rate on a $750k+ home (that likely would need some fixes on top) that Id have to take a ~500k loan out on to purchase. A simple mortgage calculator says this translates to roughly 3.8k/mo which includes the principal&interest, property taxes and home insurance. 3.8k would be more than half what my wife & I currently bring in per month. this upgrade approach doesn't seem feasible to me unless I move away from LA into say, cheaper state like Arizona or something