<human>: Can you provide a brief overview of the text?

So I just moved to the Midwest in the last 10 months and have been staying in a pretty nice apartment just short of where I work.

I currently am making around the 45k-50k range and have less than 5k in debt (inc CC, Student loans, other payments).

I drive a 16 year old truck with 190K miles on it and it's showing it's age.  Much less gets around 13 MPG, so that's not exciting.  The place I'm currently renting my apartment from I'm not very happy with and they require 3 months notice if you opt not to renew your lease.  

I'm looking into getting a new car and a new house this year.  I believe renting is worse than purchasing a new car because the money I pay goes straight as an expense and I have nothing to show for it at the end of my year.  

I'm looking around the 20K range for a new vehicle (used ones of the model(s) are not much less and hard to find) and I'm probably going to be in the 200K range for a new house.  I'm just wanting to get some advice from those in a similar scenario or of experience before I make any decisions. 

The ultimatum of this scenario is these are things that are inevitable.  My transportation is diminishing and driving in a larger city has increased the stress of the vehicles reliability.  I am handy and my Dad used to flip houses so I believe having a house and being able to do some remodeling work (therefore the possibility of improving it's equity) would be more beneficial, albeit, costly than renting. 

I appreciate your time and your advice.
<bot>: House and car need to be purchased. 45k-50k with less than 5k in debts.  What's my best option?