Your Bad Dream House

You've got a decent job and decent credit and you're looking for a one-bedroom apartment. You have a dog, need at least 750 square feet and you're willing to stretch to $500,000. You want to live in Manhattan, but would prefer to skip Harlem.

You go to the real estate leader, corcoran.com. How many places do you think you will be able to pick from? Just one.

Why are you scraping the bottom of the market, anyway? Spend $750,000 and you can live in a place only one half the size of your parents house, the one they bought for $60,000 in the Seventies.

You're "scraping" because if you secure a 6.5 per cent interest rate on a 30-year-fixed, put down 20 per cent (that's $100,000!) and find a low maintenance payment of $700 a month, you will cough up $3228 per month for that half a million dollar apartment.

Now let's talk about those poor souls with low-paying jobs and less than stellar credit. On the other hand, let's don't.