We bought a fixer upper (borderline tear-down) for roughly 2x my income at the time (and then sold it for 2x after 5 years after fixing it up). But just for arg

We bought a fixer upper (borderline tear-down) for roughly 2x my income at the time (and then sold it for 2x after 5 years after fixing it up). But just for argument's sake, let's say you buy a house (or apartment) for $400k, which you can absolutely do in DC (for example): https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Washington%2C%20DC%22%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-77.32528309228516%2C%22east%22%3A-76.70386890771485%2C%22south%22%3A38.73744626243823%2C%22north%22%3A39.04955021000178%7D%2C%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22ah%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A400000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A2059%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A12%7D https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/?searchQueryState=%7B%... (hopefully that abysmal URL still works for you). $400,000 x 3.5% = $14,000. If you can't save a $14k down payment, you probably can't afford the mortgage on that and the associated upkeep anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the housing market. I just wanted to point out the FHA program since it helped me, personally.