You can stop right there. The current median U.S. wage is about $35K. Let's assume someone has earned that for 20 years (even though 20 years ago they'd have been making much less) and somehow managed to pay zero taxes and living expenses in that time. This person would have earned exactly $700,000 in those 20 years. Please be real. People who can spend $700K on a house and can call it a "starter house" aren't living in the real world. Their possible need to scale back or make some living adjustments is irrelevant to all but the top few percent of us. It's actually offensive. If you'd specified you were talking about the finances of the very wealthy it would have been fine. But no, you call it a "starter house". Jesus.