Reply #9: Home ownership is the most "faith-based" thing we do

[SoCalDem]

We take a leap of faith when we sign up to buy a house. We sign up for debt like no other.

A car is a leap of faith too, but if we find ourselves unable to continue the payments, we can sell it,or trade it in on a cheaper one with payments we can afford.

A house is different.

It's where we sleep, it's what holds all our "stuff", it's what defines us as having arrived at MiddleClass (or so we tell ourselves).

Even a bargain-priced house can be nearly impossible to hold onto if a job is lost.

We all know about the McMansions of $400K "sold" to people who never should have been able to get into them, BUT even a modest home with a <$100K price tag is still a very long commitment, when jobs are not secure.

"Experts" say your house payments (including taxes & insurance) should not be more than 30% of your take home pay, and there are families all over the place now whose income fluctuates wildly these days. For quite a long time, people counted on getting regular raises, and that's just not the case anymore.

I am not a bit surprised at how people are opting-out of home-buying these days