“Meantime, the tax rate on a $200K house (for which one would have to borrow the $165K after a 15% down payment) would be about $800 per month.”
WOW, those are some beefy tax rates!
Upstate New York, I should have stated.
More than $10K/yr on a $250K house.
Perhaps my math was a little off. More like $675/mo on a $200K house.