[quote=Effective Demand]Buy a house for the right reasons. its right for you and your family and you can afford it. Dont buy expecting to get rich off the house or expecting the house will protect ,you from the ills of the world.[/quote]

If you combine what ED said above and the collective discussion about potential inflation, you’ll be O.K.

If you buy a house that you cannot afford because you think inflation will alter the situation, you are nothing more than a 2006 bubble buyer with a toxic loan. They were buying a house they couldn’t afford because they thought it’s value would rise indefinately. But if you can afford what you are planning on buying, if it works with or without inflation, you will probably end up in great position 15 years from now when your house payment is the size of your car payment.

Prepare for inflation but don’t count on it! It is the system’s “easy button” but it has consequences that they would prefer to avoid. I think the odds are in favor of it but I wouldn’t make it my entire financial plan, just a component of it.

If we do enter a period of high inflation, lets say 6% a year for 5+ years, wages tend to follow but they also tend to lag. Most people’s wages do not adjust on a monthly basis, it balances out over a decade or so but it usually is a game of catch up.

In the early 1970’s you could buy a house with a 30 yr mortgage and by the mid 1980’s your mortgage was similar to a car payment. But it took 15 years and I’m cherry picking a period of time from the past, who knows what the future will bring.

If hyperinflation actually shows up, then those who own will make out like bandits, but it’s never happened in this country, so i wouldn’t bank on it.