Bitten by the Bug

Somehow I got bitten by the home-buying bug. I came to the somewhat surprising conclusion that I could, by this time next year, have enough for an adequate down-payment (god willing and the creek don' rise, inshallah, etc, etc, etc) on a starter (emphasis on starter... more on that later) home somewhere in Alaska. I guess I am 26 years old, it's about damn time, huh?

However, it would kinda force me into a position where I'd have to make decisions about my life. Since I can't own a home in the village (me being all non-native and stuff), if I WERE to buy a home, it would be a summer home only for at least a few years. Kinda seems bass ackwards to buy a summer home before buying a regular home, but there you have it.

Seriously, though, the stuff I'm looking at is pretty... quirky. I don't need or want a large house. I really think that a lot of my generation has some pretty lofty expectations when it comes to first-home-buying. I don't... and it makes the whole experience a little less stressful. I can actually picture myself paying off the numbers I'm looking at in some kind of forseeable future.

But really, it's all theoretical at this point. Who knows what'll happen in the next year? My job is pretty secure... they can't cut positions and make one teacher do half time at two schools as is so frequently the case in education because the nearest school is like 30 miles away. But still... don't wanna count the ptarmigan before they're hatched.