> Rule of thumb says you shouldn't spend more than three times your income on housing Is this a rural rule of thumb? Looking around me, I see people routinely

> Rule of thumb says you shouldn't spend more than three times your income on housing Is this a rural rule of thumb? Looking around me, I see people routinely paying 5-10 times their annual income to get a crappy city apartment and spending the majority of their income making mortgage payments. The alternatives, spending the majority of their income on rent or moving to an area where the majority of the income would vanish, do not seem better.