re: Student loans and buying a house

I'm in a similar situation - just finished expensive grad school and looking to buy a house next year. It's all about the 43% ratio that counts all of your debt. In order to completely offset your student loans, you would have to get a raise in monthly income 2.3x higher than your monthly student loan payment.

The two pieces of advice I will give you are:
1. Set your student loan payments as low as possible before the mortgage and refinance later.
2. Do not buy a car or take out another large loan if you can possibly help it.