I do agree with you regarding location, though.
I talked with an attorney from San Francisco on a plane once. When they bought their first house, 70% of their income was going towards the house. Raises helped that become a more reasonable percentage over the year.
Fast forward a few years, their family grew and they wanted to be further towards the edge of the city. They sold the house at a huge profit and put that money towards a bigger house further out. Different perspective in different markets.
The cost of most household consumables is largely fixed, even as income scales. One can have expensive taste and increase that, but you can only spend so much on toilet paper and laundry detergent.
So yeah, you should make at least $137,500 if you want to buy a $275k house.
Take for example a $300,000 house w/ 4% mortgage. That works out to roughly $1,400/month. Even if you only make $75,000/year, it makes perfect sense to buy that house even if rents are a little lower than $1,400/month. (and current 30yr average rates bring that down to about $1225/month)
In my area, a small 2 bedroom house in a reasonably nice area will cost about $300,000, so the $1225 to $1,400/month rate applies. Renting a 2 bedroom apartment with less sqft for common spaces, in a similar area, will cost about $1800 to $2000. This is significantly more than is required to make up for property taxes levied on top of the mortgage when actually purchasing.
So I'm really not sure where you're getting your 2x figure. That's the sort of statement, absent context & explanation, that really doesn't add much to the conversation.
(On top of this, apartment complexes in my area have been nominally keeping monthly rates the same, but disaggregating utility costs from the rent, charging separately for heating, water, sewage, and garbage collection... at least for a year or two. After people get used to those additional fees, the complexes begin raising rents again too. I don't blame them too much, there's plenty of rental demand, but it changes the balance between renting & purchasing even more)
And in many markets, especially in big expensive cities like NY & SF, it costs more money to buy than to rent.
There are many things that I could know or believe that affect the calculus. For example I might get promoted next year and make more money or whatever.
