How much house can you buy? Here are some guidelines

Got $405,000? That's the median price of a single-family home in King County, according to the most recent data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Using conservative lending estimates from the National Association of Realtors, a household would have to bring in $96,428 to buy that $405,000 home — and that's with a 20 percent (or $81,000) down payment. With nothing down, make that $120,535.

While Seattle isn't considered a "bubble" market, the median price of single-family homes in King County has been rising by double digits every year for several years — 11.9 percent (from $362,000 to $405,000) from March 2005 to March 2006 alone.

Median income in King County hasn't risen as quickly as home prices. Last year, median income in King County was $77,900 for a family of four; $63,120 for a two-person household; and $55,230 for singles.

That means buying a house is a challenge not just for those in the lowest income brackets, but also for middle-income families and professionals.

So what's a shopper to do? The mortgage industry has bent its original rules in recent years to offer an increasing array of loan products that let buyers borrow more money — in more creative ways — to pay for increasingly expensive homes.

Even the Federal Housing Administration, which administers FHA loans popular with first-time buyers, has raised the amount it will lend in the Seattle area to $335,800, up 28 percent in the past 18 months, said Pam Negri, spokeswoman for the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) branch that oversees FHA loans in Western states.

But the National Association of Realtors recommends that buyers look for homes that cost no more than 4.2 times their pre-tax household income if they plan to put 20 percent down; 3.4 times if they expect to put nothing down.