Realty Times - "Runaway Housing Market Could Jump Track"
"If predictions about interest rates, housing prices, and foreclosures are accurate, then the United States is looking at a 'housing train wreck.' The housing train wreck will affect middle-class families as well as low- and moderate-income homeowners," said John H. Vogel, Jr., professor and faculty director at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. In "Reflections on the U.S. Mortgage Market," penned for the Urban Land Institute, Vogel says too many households are over extended, primarily because of easy money -- easy mortgage money."
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Point being that many of us are now house-poor, making house payments that far exceed recommended levels, facing increasing property taxes and other rising costs. Add to the mix that millions of people are also forced to pay increasing HOA assessments, something this article doesn't mention, and you have even more financial pressure. It works as long as you have two wage-earners, low interest rates, and no costly surprises like a $20,000 special assessment. But that leaves a lot of people on the high wire hoping they don't encounter a stiff breeze.