[KantianBurke]

"It is becoming very difficult for ordinary people to buy houses in mnay areas."

Just wait till SS and Medicaid taxes explode. Most homes are going to be vacant but still out of reach for young working families. The boomers on the other hand will have paid off their mortgages and will be sitting pretty.

[glory]

I'm telling you, it was getting out of reach for us. We were lucky to buy right after we were married(96) and that equity helped us to get the house we have now(similar size, better neighborhood--accross the country). I dare say if we had been just starting out now, I think we could have bought a home, but I doubt that I would have been able to stay home someday(like I do now) with the mortgage we would have had.
We've decided to stay in our current house as well until the kids are out of school(our oldest will just start Kinder this fall so we are talking the long haul here) because of the pricing. Buying a home that is adequate space wise for us is just outpacing our income so we are settled here. I think we were lucky to get in to this area when we did. Most homes here are way beyond our budget, but we were fortunate to find an older home in a more established neighborhood that needed some modernizing so we got a deal for this area. We are hoping to modernize it a bit(mostly cosmetic) and make two add ons to bring it to the space we think we'll need to make it comfortable as our family grows(in age and size;-)