Home ownership

Here's my take on home ownership in the future. If you don't own your house or have a fixed-rate or otherwise affordable mortgage right now? Forget it. The only way you're getting a mortgage in the future is if you've got an utterly unblemished, perfect credit report, can afford a 20% cash down payment and have an income high enough that the payments won't be more than about 33% of your gross income. Anything short of that and nobody'll be willing to lend you money at rates you can afford to take.