My salary didn’t change at all, but homes went up 82%. The money I saved for a down payment and my salary no longer are good enough for this home and many others. This ain’t even a “good” home either. It was a 200k meh average ok home before. Now it’s simply unaffordable
Usually, yes, but it’s situational.
For example, I bought my house in 2009 during the depths of the Great Recession, with no down payment, and got a screaming deal. If I had decided to wait a few years to save up for a down payment, I would’ve been 500% screwed.
(That “500%” isn’t hyperbole, by the way: that’s how much more I would’ve had to spend to buy my house now instead of back then! Actually, I’d have been even more screwed than that, considering that I’d be paying ever-increasing rent the whole time, too.)