Hmph. Any house I've looked at in years has been so overpriced that a big enough down payment to bring its note down from the stratosphere would be enough to buy a small condo.

Sure, I could put myself in desperate hock to the finance company . . . but I happen to like things like electricity, food, and gas for my car. Cat food doesn't appeal to me.

And how are your costs "fixed"? Property taxes go up; repairs go up; there's insurance, power, gas, water and sewer, flood insurance . . . You need to leave some headroom. One-third of NET income is one thing, but one-third of GROSS is using money you don't even have! It's insane! Sure, as MedMech pointed out, if you make $250K a year, you can pay even half your income (crazy as that is), because you still have plenty more to live on and save. But at $35K, you don't have much margin for error.

Understand, I'm not arguing against buying a house. I'm arguing in favor of being sensible about it. My "logic" is the simple logic of the checkbook. If you spend more than you make, you're in trouble. Governments don't have to live like that. We do.

If housing prices crash back down to reasonable levels, it might give the average Joe a chance.

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-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino