Rent too high, but can't get approved for loan

[Brandon Smotherman]

Good evening everyone!

First post and excited that I accidentally stumbled across this place after reading Rich Dad. I've already listened to a few of the Bigger Pockets podcasts just today. 

With that said I'm still in the early learning/studying phase of REI, but I did have a question that I wanted to see if we could possibly get advice for.

We are currently renting in St. Louis city for $1300 and need to move as the 3-story just doesn't work anymore w the new baby. With that said, it seems like most everything that would be desirable for us in town is running $1400-$1500 a month.

We looked into buying last year (not even sure we want to do that though) but couldn't really get approved for anything worthwhile because, although my credit is great, we have combined 100k in student loan debt plus I'm self-employed so the tax return looks like we are at the poverty level. 

So in the end we feel kind of trapped and wanted to see if there might be any other angles we could check out that I might not have otherwise known about?

Thanks and looking forward to learning and growing from these great forums (sorry if this posted is in the wrong forum)!!!