In last week’s Atlanta Business Chronicle was an article about the lofty expectations of first time home buyers. While the article tried to pit home buyers of today against home buyers from ten years ago (something that most likely shouldn’t be done flippantly,without a whole lot of explanation), I felt that is should have spent more time examining the fact that 81% of people surveyed felt that move in conditions were very important and only 50% felt that affordability was the biggest concern.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be concerned with they way that their first home purchase looks, both inside and out. What bothers me is that almost 100% of people looking for their first home should be concerned with the affordability of that home. Hasn’t the recent rush of foreclosures in the Atlanta market taught us anything about buying more house than one could afford?