I’m with you. When we bought our current house, we could “afford” over twice as much. My wife was ready to go all the way but I held back. As a result we will have our note paid off in 12 years at most and hopefully sooner.

Still, for me, getting into debt to buy a house is not inherently bad. It is when you OVER-LEVERAGE yourself, the drama happens. Ideally people should only borrow up to 3 times their annual income, but these days it is common to borrow more than 5 times their annual income; I have a friend who borrowed 8 times her annual income and I’m scared for her(gorgeous house, though ).
For our household, the initial mortgage is about 1.5 times our annual incomes and we’re almost half-way through (my friend would never live in a house like mine). I guess it depends on how you play the game and what you are willing to sacrifice .
Bytta @151 Days Off´s last blog ..Day 11: Designing Your Life with Savings Snowball

@bytta – With respect, I disagree. You are right, of course but I disagree. There are lots of people with different opinions but most I have ever heard suggest buying a house “because it’s the best investment you could ever make”, “you get the tax write-off”, “you won’t be throwing your money away” etc. I’m not saying don’t buy a house, but I am saying in the vast majority of cases debt sucks! The more I think about it the more I wonder if we should do like our grandparents did; save first and then buy.