Menry and rachel ross aren't looking for a mansion. Their needs are simple: a home with enough space for their children (their third is due in November), good schools and a neighborhood that's safe enough for Rachel to jog in. As the couple―he's a carpenter, she's a part-time mortgage broker―have outgrown their rental in El Cerrito, Calif., they've put offers on 20 properties. Each time they've been outbid by another Bay Area couple. So the Rosses believe they've got little choice but to stretch for the biggest mortgage they can to get the bid up to $350,000 for a home. "That's as far as we can comfortably go," says Rachel, who admits that maybe "comfortable" isn't the right word to describe their looming indebtedness. "It's gotten to the point now, when we make an offer on a house, I'm relieved when we don't get it," she says. "It'd be such a tight mortgage."
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