At higher income levels, it really doesn't matter if you are spending 1/2 of your income on your home. If I'm making $200K/year, that gives me ~$8K of spending

At higher income levels, it really doesn't matter if you are spending 1/2 of your income on your home. If I'm making $200K/year, that gives me ~$8K of spending power per month for my home and ~$8K, pre-tax, for other things. If the market is going up, long term, then buying a house is a good investment vehicle for your money. It's also a writeoff on your taxes. That said, my response was targeting the comment about what a bank would loan you at a given salary, not whether it was a good idea or not. :)