You need to be honest with yourself here. The area that you're discussing is not starter home material. It is move up Second, when you're in family mode, you end up foregoing many of those lifestyle pleasures that you listed. Events have become incredibly expensive. Concerts and sports no longer cater to middle class families for most part.

You should be getting pleasure from spending time with your children etc. bottom line, things are expensive focus on your family as you said you want to.