Homes are less affordable While home buying has been made easier, affordability has gotten harder. Housing payments as a percent of median income have risen. According to the National Association of Realtors, in 1973 the median payment as a percent of income was 16.9 percent whereas today it is 24.3 percent - up from 20 percent from just two years ago.

We're using up more of our equity Homeowners' equity - while worth more today than it was in real dollars back in the 1970s - has been declining steadily since 2000, suggesting that home buyers are putting down less for their homes and are tapping the equity they do have once they make the purchase.

Despite the limited financing choices homebuyers had in the 1970s and the higher standards they had to meet when it came to debt and equity, "on a relative basis, I do think probably your earlier counterparts were better off," Gumbinger said.

Today, he said, "if you went by the old model, you might never get an opportunity to buy a home because prices far outstrip your ability to save."