Regarding PMI, my wife wanted to get our own house as soon as possible even if we had to pay PMI. I wanted to save 20% down first. It would have taken us more than a year to save 20% downpayment. So in end, wife won.

But that that time I didn't know that you could remove PMI as soon as you have 20% equity in the house. So we did our best, made extra payments, and built up equity to 20%, and removed PMI in about a year.

If we had tried to save for 20% downpayment like I wanted, we would have paid $12,000+ towards rent instead of about $1200 towards PMI (and a little more interests). So I tell all my friends that don't let PMI scare them, as long as they can afford to make extra payment and be able to remove it within a year or so.