Politicans and economics.

watching a member of the House of Representatives lamenting the housing crash and the economy crash state that the people losing their homes to foreclosure were losing their wealth, and it was costing the country trillions of dollars.

Folks, those people that lost their house had no wealth to lose, in most cases. If you buy a $500,000 house and borrow $450,000 to complete the transaction, you have a home that costs you $30,000 a year for payments and a tax of $5,000 year that will continue until the home is destroyed.
It will cost you $6,000 a year to maintain it, and if you want to sell it , it will cost you $30,000 to sell it if the value has not gone down.

It is just like buying a Rolls Royce, you will feel great buying it, but keeping it going will be expensive.

Now if the Real estate marks takes a 10% dive you will take a $50,000 loss and that will mean that you will have no equity in the home, and no wealth in the real estate you own.

You will be better off to turn in the keys and get rid of the dept, and perhaps wind up with a small net worth. If you try to sell it you will be in the hole for another $25,000 and be deeper in the debt hole.

The trouble with buying a $500,000 house is that you will have to furnish it, meet the standards of the neighborhood, and , in general, spend a lot of money maintaining your feeling of being a millionaire!