What would you do with $30,000? Pay off debt? Start a Business? Save it? Blow it?

it depends on how many debts you have that will not be paid off within 6 months. first, in paying for things with any high interest, such as credit cards, always pay the miniumum due with at least the amount of interest they charged you in that past month, else, the interest next month will compound on the total, including interest unpaid last month, plus the principal balance.

i am telling you this because if you are younger, you would be wise to purchase real estate. but if your credit is bad, then you will pay the piper in one way or another, via fees, points on the mortgage, a higher interest rate (the banker will tell you, no worry, we can refinance you in a year--but what he will not tell you is how long it will take you to recover any costs you put out to refinance, plus consider that you will have lost all the money you paid into the principal balance when you first bought).

the fewer bills that you have with payments that will not take longer than 6 months to pay off the balance (they give you more leeway on school loans), the easier it is for you to obtain a mortgage.

sure, interest rates are rising. however, every young person should purchase their house as soon as possible. especially now, since now is a buyer's market, giving you the largest number of units to look at since they are not flying off the market like hotcakes, and, because since they have been sitting on the market for a long time, you can negotiate price and terms more to your own advantage than to the seller's.

if you are lucky, you will spend no more than 35% of your gross monthly income on both the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance (the "piti" of a mortgage) PLUS your long-range monthly debt. if you are lucky, your piti (or pita if you will pay assessments on a condo rather than house insurance) alone for the residence will be no greater than 28-30% of your gross monthly pay.

it doesn't matter if interest rates are coming down, going up, static, whatever. what does matter is that the price of real estate increases at a FAR GREATER speed and rate of increase than do most monitary investments. so, when you sell, at the END of a seller's market that will go into a buyer's market again, you wind up making far, far, far more money than you could possibly get if you had tied the money into certificates of deposit, for example, and you are at high risk with stocks. who knows why the stock market does what it does??? nobody that i know!

there is only one drawback to your money being tied up in your dwelling rather than a savings instrument of some type: real estate is not what is called a "fluid" investment, meaning that to get the money for it, you have to wait until you close for a new buyer of it.

but...buy a house. buy a house. buy a house!!!