[Maria]

re the home purchase idea. Now is a great time to buy if one has a down payment and can work out a mortgage (which perhaps you can get your husband to do for you re your situation) as currently buying a home a foreclosure or even a traditional sale is probably a cheaper way to go than rent and esp. with interest rates so low.

Like Dale stated when property appreciates you'd have the option of selling and then taking a profit hopefully and relocating if you still wanted to with some money to pocket or perhaps staying on.

This is my plan. I've seen a number of places that I like and can live in the next 7 years easily while I still have two incomes (SSD and LTD) however I'm trying to get something that will still be viable re costs when I'm only getting SSD.

I have looked at short sales, REOs, and traditional sales. I've only made two offers and one I got out of after finding something out that made me not want to live there and the other offer was made an a property that was a Probate "as is" sale which someone could afford to offer more than I did and that was taken. I'm still looking.

Good luck! While CA is expensive this is the best it's been for home buying in quite some while re prices/interest rates.