The progressive income tax has only a very slight effect on how “hard” it is to save for those making over $200K.

No argument there, but there is a lot more at play here than just federal income tax. State tax, SS/medicare, AMT, and sales taxes all eat into the income of high earners. I’m not one of those that says that high earners should pay less tax, but I just want to point out that the numbers are quite shocking when they’re added all together. As a business owner I am perhaps more sensitive to this than others since I pay double SS/medicare as well as CA corporation tax, SD city business tax, state disability, and probably several others that I’m unable to think of at the moment.

Also, people in this group usually max out their 401Ks, so that’s another big chunk of money that’s not available for saving as a down payment.

I still stand by my point that saving a $100K down payment will be difficult for many high earners here in SD, especially those with their own businesses. Yes they can easily do it by driving older cars, living in crappy apartments, and eating top ramen. However, how many $200K/yr attorneys or salespeople are going to do that? Very few will give up their fancy apartments and Mercedes cars.