<prompt> Human: A common response to the common question of how much house can I afford is 2x your salary for single income households and 3x your income for dual income households. This is often attributed to the price of the home regardless of the downpayment. Why is this?I feel two households each making 100kyear could afford vastly different homes if one had 20k down payment and the other had 200k. The rule is just to prevent households from becoming house poor, if they both purchased 300k homes, one would be house poor and the other would be house rich.Assistant: This is often attributed to the price of the home regardless of the downpayment.Im not so sure it is regardless of the down payment, at least when applied here at rpf, since virtually always that suggestion goes hand-in-hand with the statement that the buyer should put at least 20 down.Human: But what if that 20 down payment is equal to a year or twos salary?  <response>: If a 20 down payment is equal to 1x annual salary then the total house cost is 5x annual salary 4x for mortgage, which wed generally recommend people not purchase. 