First of all, a $1M house with $200k down means an $800k mortgage, not a $1M mortgage. With rates as ridiculously low as they are, monthly payments are closer to $3.5k/mo. Add in an amortized $500/mo in property tax and you're at $4k/mo, for about 39% of income, not 48%. For that married couple making median income (filing jointly), after the mortgage interest tax deduction I think it's like 46% of their after-tax takehome pay. They'd have about $4.8k/mo ($57k/year) left over for whatever. That doesn't seem like so much of a strain as to be inaccessible.
(I used some crappy googled income tax calculators, so it'll be off, but hopefully not by a ton. I only factored in mortgage interest deductions, and I don't understand SALT deductions and didn't factor that in, so they might be able to deduct more and have even more left over?)
(We're also both using the 2018 median household income, which is like $8k more than 2017, so 2019 was probably even more. Who knows how that relates to today's chaos)
(I used some crappy googled income tax calculators, so it'll be off, but hopefully not by a ton. I only factored in mortgage interest deductions, and I don't understand SALT deductions and didn't factor that in, so they might be able to deduct more and have even more left over?)
(We're also both using the 2018 median household income, which is like $8k more than 2017, so 2019 was probably even more. Who knows how that relates to today's chaos)