>>You're not going to claim, are you, that $285k is the bottom of the market where they could have bought a home?<<
I dunno. Where I live the bottom (in simple middle class neighborhoods) is much higher than that.
Well, that is if you want ANY of the windows in your new home intact at the time of purchase. And something other than dirt floors.
But I don't know exactly where these people lived. But the "bottom" can be a pretty dismal and scary place. It sounds like bankruptcy and moving back where they can find work might be in order.
I refuse to believe there was nothing more affordable. I do believe they were not prepared to live with less.