I appreciate the insight. It's certainly a bitter pill. We're looking for a less than 1500 square foot home with 3 small bedrooms and some amenities like a 1 car garage (optional) and 1.5 bathrooms (really want an extra half-bath, or at least a home where we could easily add one). Sadly it's stuck in my head that a home like that in my area SHOULD be around 400k. In 2018 they were closer to 350k. But now they are hovering around 500k. And despite the increase in mortgage rates, sellers are not budging on price. Last year we got caught up in FOMO, bid 476k for a house listed for 375k, waived inspection (insane, i won't do that again), and still got outbid. We found out later through the grapevine we were outbid by an all cash offer. Above 101k over the asking price. For a ~1450 square foot home.

The other option is, move much further from where we want to live (further from our families), to get the same type of home for less money. But the trouble is, we need our dual incomes to afford it either way, and we can't afford the mortgage and full-time child care.

We are lucky to be renting an apartment from a landlord who has not cranked out rent up over the past 3 years, only a $50 increase. So we're saving as much as we can. But this apartment is old and nasty and it's on top of an EPA superfund site - so we're not looking to have our first child here, but are feeling trapped here because the rent is low enough that we can keep saving.