Screwed again.

Adam, I feel your pain. when I was renting it seemed every time I'd get a raise my landlord would raise the rent, yet he NEVER fixed anything, I fixed it all for free, then when we moved he tried to screw us out of our deposit.
We wanted to buy a house, but we kept spinning our wheels trying to save as the housing prices kept climbing farther and farther out of our reach.
Finally with some advise from an Uncle who was a realitor we were able to walk into a $450,000 home with a total of about $1400.00 out of our pocket. Within a Year and a half similar houses in our neighborhood were going for $525,000 - $600,000
Now if I would of waited another year or two trying to save more money for the down payment, there is no way I could of afforded to buy here.
My loan is an Interest only loan for 5 years, then you have to refinance to something more like a 30 year fixed or something, which will make my payments go up a good chunk. So it's not a great loan, but it did get my foot in the door when I thought it was a lost cause. If you can get a better loan for your financial situation then by all means do it.
Once my foot was in the door, I found a better job that would give me steady raises so in 5 years I could absorb the jump in the house payment.
Good luck,
Rob