[Larryjk]

The "rant" was 100% right on. When I was in high school (long time ago) we were told that 30% of your take home pay was all you could afford to budget for the cost of the roof over your head. That was the max including the utilities. If some dumb folks took mortages that exceed that number and got into trouble, it is because they were playing "Russian roulette" with a loaded gun, especially with variable rates. They took a mortage that was designed to fail. Real estate brokers had a hand in this deception but the folks that set up the mortage were the real culprits.
I bought a house I could afford and paid it off. I don't want to pay for anyone else's house. There was an expression that buy what you want, not what you can afford, because the cost of houses always goes up and you can pay for it while it is appreciating with cheaper dollars due to inflation. It doesn't always work that way.