Forebearance is only 7% of US households, many of them took it as a precaution.

Our median home prices are a little more than 4 times the median household incomes.

And I am ok with that, again due to my financial goals and personal plan.Personally as a "rule" the 1% rule (and sometimes quoted 2%) is not really realistic, much like the idea of a single income household stopped being realistic for the most part in the 70-80s.

Not saying it doesn't happen, but its usually someone making over $120,000 per year paying of $50,000 in 16 months just by not taking 2 vacations and selling their BMW.Our household budget has been trimmed every way possible.

Our household income together would be $55,000 per year plus an extra $10,000 in school refund checks because we both were fortunate enough to not have student loans.

, but the down payment assistance income limits are now ridiculously high (>$200k/yr is now recognized as "modest income" in some areas...) and a few have switched to using "borrower income" instead of "household income" to test if you're over the limit.To whatever extent you think availability of financing plays a role in driving home values: think about the two things above together...

I agree with much of what you said Scott, although I would add something to this line : “El Dorado county (El Dorado Hills to Tahoe) is pretty rural and the incomes don’t justify the housing prices and it’ll be tough to get 1% rules there.”El Dorado Hills, adjacent to the eastern edge of Sacramento County has a 2016 US Census median household income of $125,489.

Generally the more median rental amounts $600-$1000 tend to not waiver much with market shifts because the lower income households cant afford anything more and can't get a loan as easily to buy a home.

The fundamentals are job and household creations.

Also, Sheboygan has the most middle class households of any metro area in this study: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/06/the-american-middle-class-is-stable-in-size-but-losing-ground-financially-to-upper-income-families/.Happy hunting!