@Griffin Wilde Cardew I spent 6 months crunching the numbers on which market to pick and the things you mentioned are of course important. 

@Bradley Marion, That is awesome that you don't experience those wild pricing swings.

Sure we have a wild card president now but I hardly see that as a reason to sit there with concrete boots on.I would love to hear others opinions and possible additional experiences on this.

Yes, Durham has been a wild place to start learning about real estate but I love the area and am ready to work around the challenges.

I've gotten some estimates and a study and seeing wildly differing numbers as far as tax savings as well as cost.

Since laws are entirely created by humans they can vary wildly from state to state. 

Wild guess insurance 1200 Wild guess taxes 3600 = 4800/12 = $400.

You'll notice some homes in the same neighborhood vary wildly in their income results.

Also, there are a lot of things the general public doesn't know to share with their mortgage pro. one example: if you have a car payment (for purchase, not for lease), and there is 10 or less payments remaining, we can omit that car payment from your ratios. if asked if you have a car payment, you may not know to tell me its almost paid off. a less experienced mortgage pro may not think to ask how many payments left. also, there could be some collections from yeeeeears ago you've forgotten about entirely a credit report would show. maybe you had lates that would pose challenges and you dont think about it or realize it could be important. i also find people give me scores based off their credit karma (or similar credit reporting) which may wildly differ from a mortgage pull (different scoring models) and they are left surprised when their "740 fico" is actually 712, which would put you in a different credit bucket for pricing/ rates. higher rate = higher payment, could = less purchasing power. point is, its all just talk until we do the legwork. if you're serious about buying, WHEN you're serious about buying, do the credit check. save yourself the heartache of surprises later

As long as you don't have tusks five times as large as a wild boar (a smell to match)and red glowing eyes how you look shouldn't matter I've been told the hill billy folks on the old movie "deliverance" look and act less inbred than I do !