Though home prices have fallen this year, in the most expensive markets where home prices tripled during the boom, many working families still cannot afford to buy a home The data underscore the serious affordability problems in this country and highlight how the slightest financial problem — from a lost job to higher gas prices or insurance premiums — can put a family behind on their mortgages and into the realm of foreclosure. (sort of like the slighest health problem for the uninsured sends the same people into a financial death spiral)

But now, an estimated 10 million homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth (we call these the "underwater" owners - and we predicted a year ago this number would swell - it will swell even further during the next 10-20% drop in home prices)

Dolly Hanna, 51, and her husband, who bought five homes in the San Francisco area over the past 20 years, and were enjoying life during the housing boom by renting them out. But her husband's overtime at his mechanic's job was cut, and the Hannas now find themselves overextended at a loss of $15,000 per month and trying two sell two of the homes. Getting a loan during the boom was easy, Hanna knows. Too easy. "All you had to was massage the information enough to fit it into their round hole, and they gave us a mortgage," Hanna said. (remember, regulation kills innovation - all regulation must end)

In San Francisco, more than one out of five homeowners with a mortgage spends half or more of their income on housing. That's also true in 13 more of the largest 100 metro areas analyzed by the Associated Press.