Rent, Buy Town House/Condo, or Buy MFH

[John Jamin]

Hi all,

I'm 35 years old, married with a 10 month old daughter, and living in NY. I work in Long Island NY, and I have a studio apartment I rent for $1500 which includes all utilities. I make 143k a year (minus the huge amount of taxes in NY). My wife doesn't earn much at all. She works with her mother (my mother-in-law) who owns a small day-care operation in her house. I travel back and forth between Long Island where my job and apartment are located, and the Bronx/NYC where all of my relatives and wife's relatives live (and where my daughter gets daycare in my mother-in-law's home). Long story short, my wife comes to the apartment Wednesday night - Sunday night, she then goes back to her mom's house for Sunday night to Wednesday night and takes our daughter so she can make money, and so our daughter can receive free day care.

Hope all this is making sense so far! I invest as much as I can into index funds, and I'm trying to live below my means in order to get ahead later and hopefully one day achieve financial freedom. In order to help meet this goal, would I be better off:

1) Continuing to rent until I could possibly get another job closer to where my family is (I could then move into my dad's house as he took over my grandmother's house after she passed)? The job market is pretty difficult over here though and I'm not sure how long it'll take me to find another job.

2) Buy a condo/townhouse for around 250-350K, put 5 percent down, and my wife, daughter and I would live here instead of paying rent and the cost of living would be cheaper than a single family home.

3) Continue to look for either a 2 family home, or a single family home with a finished basement around where I live, and live in one side and rent out the other?

The reason I debated option 2 and 3 is because I figured owning a relatively inexpensive condo might work out financially similar to owning a 2 family home and renting out the other side. The condo might be a little more expensive in the short term and long term, but I also wouldn't need to maintain it with outside expenses, so that's a time saver right there.

Any input would be helpful. What would you guys do if you were me?

Thanks in advance!