[forgot_old_user]

cant that be said about buying a home anywhere?

[madeofpalk]

Right - it would be unwise to take out a mortgage if you miss one month of income you can't repay.

[analog31]

Yes, a difference is price. My 4 bedroom house in flyover country was a bit over $200k, and we had the cash from having worked for about 6 years after grad school for a flyover salary while continuing to live like grad students.

We went through a variety of simplistic formulas for "what you can afford" and entered half of our incomes to get an idea of what we actually wanted to spend.