[Mr Tonka]

Dude, buy a condo/town home. People will ALWAYS want to live in South Tampa and there is no more land to build on down there.

As young as you are, with rates as low as they are, you'll be sitting pretty in 10 years when you buy a new house and rent your condo out for 2.5-3 times what your mortgage is. And due to the demand, you will never be short on potential renters.

I've lived in Tampa for 39 years and own a floor covering business on S. Dale Mabry. When reading advise, keep in mind that the housing market in FL, Tampa specifically, is much different than the rest of the nation. The market here is on the rise, especially in S. Tampa. If you're going to buy, do it now. Rates are low, (likely won't be this low ever again) and prices are still reasonable. As soon as the prices go up enough you'll see a jump in the rates.

And don't sweat any hassles about renting out your place. It's no hassle, get an iron clad lease, make all repairs the tenant's responsibility. I use a commercial lease on our rentals and we rarely get calls. Do you think it's worth 10 hours of your time a year to gain $16,600 in rental income? I spend less time than that with my renters each year. I would estimate, including phone calls and visits to the house i only have 4 hours into it last year. That's about $4k per hour in rental income, I'm sure it's worth my time!