I've been terrified to even buy a house with prices the way they have been. It's been so obviously a house of cards for years. Out of curiosity, I got a pre q

I've been terrified to even buy a house with prices the way they have been. It's been so obviously a house of cards for years. Out of curiosity, I got a pre qualification for a mortgage. They wanted to give me about 4x what I was comfortable spending. I'd rather put 40% down and have a low payment than over leverage--even though my wife and I have had high incomes for the last five years. I always thought of it as years runway if things went really bad (FAANG and other tech salaries dry up, housing equity collapses). It's better to be sitting on cash than worrying about paper gains and if you're going to have a home year end.