First Time Home Buyer Looking to Leverage Equity in Denver

[Ben Schamel]

First post on BP, excited to be a part of such an awesome community!

I'm sure this has been posted about before so I apologize if I am repeating, I'm a newbie just looking to get some clarity on the Denver market. 

My wife and I have put a couple offers on townhomes in the Denver metro over the last 4 weeks (can't afford a house in Denver or surrounding metro) with the intention of living in it for 2 years, giving us the ability to build the $80k - $100k in equity that we've been seeing in this market over the last 4 to 5 years. We would plan to either sell or turn into a rental after the 2 year point and use the large amount of equity to purchase a bigger home for us (possibly back home in KCMO) as well as a 2nd rental or fix and flip in the KC metro area. My question is, with interest rates going up and us hitting the top of our monthly budget with homes/townhomes that are $450k in Denver, is it worth it for us to buy and live in a townhome for two years that we don't much like just so we can build that $80k to $100k in equity (if trends continue the way they are) with the intention of using that equity to better position ourselves for investing in the next 2 years?