Advice on first home

Duplex or Quadplex in a nice part of your city. You can live close to "free" if you work your numbers right.

Think longer and harder about building from scratch in a starter subdivision. It's a question of economics: building from scratch costs today's prices (usually higher than what it cost to build a house 10-15 years ago). The starter subdivision is a risk: who knows what the neighborhood will turn out to be like?

Since you're young and don't know what the next decade will hold, you want to buy something in a more stable, established area more likely to hold its value/appreciate. IOW, look for bargains in better areas, or condos/townhouses in nicer areas. Best of all, a duplex: you can live on one side while renting the other side to defray the cost of your mortgage, and when you want to upgrade or you need to move, you'll have ready-made rental income.

In any case, you want to be in the smallest/cheapest house in a neighborhood. The only thing that can't be fixed or upgraded is the location/area/neighborhood.

I'm not worried. For months I've been looking for an older house to maybe throw some money into, but I just can't find anything I like. With a new house I can have it set up like I want, live in it for several years while I settle down, and then rent or sell down the road when I decide to upgrade.

ETA: also, location is a major factor because I have a 30-40 minute commute to and from work

Mortgage on a new home will still be less expensive than rent on most houses in the area and much nicer. I've lived in the garbage duplex/condo/apartment in college and I'm too old for that stuff now.

No such thing exists in areas I'm looking at in BR

Fair enough, tread carefully though. I don't know how much the Baton Rouge economy is tied to the price of oil. If current oil prices are the new norm, in three years you'll owe more on your new house than it is worth.

Not a position you want to be in...

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For months I've been looking for an older house to maybe throw some money into, but I just can't find anything I like. With a new house I can have it set up like I want,

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This is a red flag: you can't find ANYTHING you like? Remember, this is your first house. You are going to sell it or rent it out at some point in the not too distant future. So you don't want the thing to be "too" custom or oddly laid out or weird, as it will limit future resale and rental options.

Dunno what a "legit" garage/yard means. Do you need boat/motorcycle storage? A backyard pool? The accessory areas of a house don't contribute much to its appraisal value.

And again, you're 26....sounds like you're unmarried/no kids. Your life may change dramatically in the next decade, and you're going to be "stuck" with a bachelor pad house and mortgage if you go with a starter house in a newly built neighborhood. Between the declining price of oil and the general weirdness in RE right now, I'd still go w/established areas over new ones.

On the other hand, you could be bold and find a gentrifying area. Get in low, get the yard you want, and sit on it until the area improves.

Half acre lot on North Boulevard. Could be a showplace with a little TLC. LINK

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On the other hand, you could be bold and find a gentrifying area

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Do you host Marketplace on NPR?

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That is a rrrreally cool home, but I've got expensive things that I would like keep in my possession

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Also the fact that house is 250k and needs 60k worth of work at least. If you have 310k to spend I doubt you would need this thread