I agree with SRS. The concept of a "starter home" has gone out the window: we first lived in a 3 (small) bedroom, 1.5 bath ranch. We could afford it (just) and we actually made enough money when we sold it that we could make the downpayment on another house in Indiana, the profits from which we put into our current house.

But we made sure that we ALWAYS had a fixed-rate mortgage so we could plan our expenditures -- no surprises of the sort that can come with some of the new types of mortgages.

I dunno what's going to happen. Something like 48% of the new houses in the Boise area are owned by out-of-state "investors" (mostly from California), and the housing market there is flatter'n central Illinois. Fortunately, it hasn't hit here...yet.

Story:

There's a former shopping mall here. Fred Meyer and Albertson's used to be there, but Fred built their own plaza across the street and Albertson's closed the market there when the rents went through the roof (as did the other stores). Now it's just a bunch of deteriorating buildings with a square block or more of parking lot.

Costco wanted to buy it and the owners, a group in Chicago, asked for $18 million US. Costco replied, "We don't pay THAT much for land in Las Vegas!" and continued looking.

Now, the property is carried on the county tax rolls for about $7 million. And it's slowly falling into ruin. So the group asked the county to reassess it.

The county did. Knowing of the selling offer to Costco, the county re-evaluated the property at $12 million, based upon the group's own estimate....

Sometimes you're better off just keeping your mouth shut....