I bought a house a few months ago. The mortgage payment is right around what the more conservative rules of thumb suggest is affordable.

After the lender had all my information I asked, out of curiosity, what was the maximum they'd lend me. They came back with a number that was more than triple what I ended up borrowing and suggested there was room to go higher if that was something I was interested in.

Perhaps subprime borrowers face lower limits but it's still possible to take a risk stretching your budget to buy a house. That may be OK or even good but I'm concerned the perception is that lenders won't approve a mortgage that will be very difficult to keep up with when they absolutely will.