A reader in their 50s earning $110,000 a year wrote to MarketWatch with a question that clearly resonates: they lost their home in the Great Recession, still rent today, and want to know why not owning a home gets judged as a failure.
Housing affordability debate (Credits: MarketWatch)
The letter was a response to an earlier column from a mortgage loan officer who praised frugal borrowers. The writer pushed back on what they saw as judgment: the recession “hit at the worst time in my life,” they wrote. “I lost my job and eventually my home. I earn $110,000 a year and it’s still hard.”
Great Recession Housing Losses: Timing vs. Recklessness
The core argument, as reported by MarketWatch: it was a matter of timing, not recklessness. People who already owned a home and held through the downturn benefited enormously from the property-value surge that followed, while those who lost a home, sold at the wrong time, or couldn’t buy during those years missed that appreciation entirely. “Some people did everything right and were caught on the wrong side of an economic shock,” the writer said. Saving for a down payment is no small feat either — not in a major metro where a house costs three to four times their annual income.
The Math: Why $110,000 a Year Still Isn’t Enough
The column’s response laid out the affordability math. With the 30-year mortgage rate having hit 7.3% in early October and prices still elevated, a $110,000 salary (about $9,200 a month before taxes) — with lenders preferring housing costs at or below 30% of gross income — could support roughly a $300,000 property before accounting for taxes, insurance, debts and the down payment itself. A 20% down payment alone would mean coming up with about $90,000. In metros like New York, Boston, Los Angeles or Seattle, the column noted, median prices can top $800,000.
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Source: MarketWatch — read the full story there.
