Uplinker
We bought our first in early '88. Mortgage rate of 9.7%. "The lowest you'll ever see", we were told, "buy to the max you can afford". We cautiously bought a smaller house where the payments were 25% of my income, leaving spare for comfort. Then within a year those 15% interest rates hit everyone. Our 'spare' was gobbled up but we lived on. Everyone else was crying about 'negative equity' (I clearly remember an article in the 'Log' headed "For 'Negative Equity' read 'Debt'"). We had that house for 10 years and although it was far from 'palatial', everyone in the family remembers it fondly. Being able to weather through that era comfortably has been an excellent lesson in caution. I have earned 'more than an MP' for very few years of my career, but we have been very happy with what we have had. Especially right now.
Good luck everyone.