Will my great girlfriend make a great landlord?

A. L. Katz  |  05:52 PM, Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I wouldn't have said "minefield" — at least, not to your face — but you're right. Obviously, you want your rent and daily expenses to consume significantly less than 100 percent of your take-home pay. (Just how much less depends on where you live, but even in an expensive city, you need some margin.) In your case, this is particularly true, because you're starting with no savings, and thus have no cushion to cover disaster or the unexpected. What if you and your girlfriend break up, and you need one of those money-costing emergency U-Hauls? Or what if, say, your beloved mutt runs up a thousand-dollar vet bill? Or, in the worst-case economic scenario, what if you simply lose your job? If that happens, this whole plan goes down the drain.

Meanwhile, this is a risky plan for your girlfriend, too. She's the one buying an apartment she can't afford without you. Again, what if the two of you break up, or you lose your job? In either case, she's suddenly on the hook for money she doesn't have.

So, yes, buying right now would be jumping the gun. But there is a bright side. In many markets, you can afford to rent a much nicer apartment than you could afford to buy. And many housing experts predict that housing values will fall further in 2010. So why don't you and your girlfriend find a big, beautiful, cheap apartment to rent for a year? If by next Valentine's Day, you've saved some money, your girlfriend has found a job, housing prices have leveled out, and you're looking at a long future together, buy her a big box of chocolates and call your realtor.