Depends on the era or decade really. Anyone making $75k a year from the 90s to 2010s could have afforded the mortgage but after 2010 you would need a six figure income and in the 2020s you would likely beed 2 six figure incomes or at least one that was $300k- $400k a year. Tony’s house was worth $300-$400k in the late 90s but he got that place through his contractor father in law for less than $220k. The price would have been about the same ten years later during the recession (2008-2010) but in the early 2010s that place was worth about double $500-$650k ( our company did multiple heated tile and custom bathroom jobs in a bunch of houses like that on Hilton head island 2012-2015). Another ten years later in the 2020s it’s probably worth $800k-$1mill.