Yeah, here on Long Island (outside of NYC) a tiny little cape will start at $300k and that’s usually assuming there’s lots of high value fixes needed or it’s in a rough area.
My fiance was really convinced that home ownership made complete sense and I had to break down via spreadsheet exactly what it meant to buy a house vs renting. Between the insane cost of property taxes (easily $5-15k for a normal middle class home depending on the area), and the cost of repairs buying a house that you don’t plan on dying in is a pretty tough deal these days. Even if you assume decent growth (which I think the bubble proved was all a myth) in your houses value, the amount dumped into interest on a traditional 30 year mortgage is almost as much as the house.
Stinks having to deal with landlords, but I’m quite OK with renting for some time. Like was mentioned above the rental market is much bigger because people are renting properties they can’t sell just to keep paying the mortgage and hoping to weather the recession.