I have a hard time seeing that happen. I bought my house in late 1998 and put 20% down. With excellent credit my rate was around 8%. My monthly PITI + HOA was significantly more than rent Pre-tax I spent about $10,000 more per year. After tax assuming a 37% marginal tax bracket I was slightly ahead.
That was definitely pre-bubble times and some would even say housing was undervalued. At the time we bought our house was 3 to 3.5 times our gross annual income.
