That's not what it implies. The article is just talking about the price of housing in Seattle. The journalist was comparing the cost of the home the family bought, with a theoretical similar house in the city.
Moreover, almost everyone is highly leveraged when "buying" a home. Hell, I my wife and I could swing a 1.5m mortgage if we really wanted to. According to mortgage calculator, a 1.5m house would take 60k down-payment and 1.5k/month[1]. That's very reasonable for a large portion of the population.
I've paid triple that amount in rent for apartments.
>According to mortgage calculator, a 1.5m house would take 60k down-payment and 1.5k/month[1].
Did you miss a zero somewhere or did the calculator have a bug? There's no way 60K down and 1.5k/month is correct. It's much higher than that for a $1.5M home.
I was about to say the same thing. I put $33k down and financed $208k at around 3.5% (in the Upper Midwest). Three years on my payments are about $1280, after increased taxes YOY.
Fannie Mae's "jumbo loan" policy means you have to pay huge money down and also prove that you have enough in the bank to fund like 6 months of payments.
Moreover, almost everyone is highly leveraged when "buying" a home. Hell, I my wife and I could swing a 1.5m mortgage if we really wanted to. According to mortgage calculator, a 1.5m house would take 60k down-payment and 1.5k/month[1]. That's very reasonable for a large portion of the population.
I've paid triple that amount in rent for apartments.
[1]: 30-year, 60k realtor cut, 4.2% fixed rate, $2400 property taxes/year, average credit
Edit: Yeah I think the calculator is giving wrong results. There's no way that's possible.