Buyers take on dizzying mortgage debt

San Jose Mercury reports:

Silicon Valley's soaring home prices have been felt by nearly everyone, though in vastly different ways.

Some stretch to get into a house at any cost, spending more than half their incomes on mortgage payments. Others despair, convinced they'll never be able to buy a house where the median price is now $714,000.

Meanwhile, some who have owned homes for years cash out to launch new lives in cheaper housing markets while others, trapped because they can't afford bigger homes here despite their equity gains, stay put.