Complete noobie question
I'm 28 years old, male. I do not own any property, I'm currently paying rent for a room to live. I have 10k in savings, and 27K built up in an IRA.
I'm looking to get out of my current housing situation, and I'm wondering what my first steps should be, should I look to purchase a home for myself, so that i'm paying myself and not losing rent money every month? Should I look for another place to rent that will better suite my preferences while trying to save up some money for a house?
I live in Oregon, housing market is pretty inflated over here, and the area is growing seemingly pretty quickly as I'm located near Portland.
My knowledge on real estate is very limited, I'm just starting to learn about the concept of rental property investing. Any advice is appreciated.