I bought a house suitable to my needs - not "the biggest house the bank said I could afford based on my income". Doing so has allowed me to pay extra principal every month, and getting me under an 80% loan to value figure just over 5 years in to a 30 year mortgage (straight calculation based on the original amount borrowed - I also put 10% down at time of purchase). This is allowing me to remove the $120/mo cost of mortgage insurance, but since I am more than comfortable with my payment as is, rather than take a reduction in payment, I will keep paying the same and add that additional $120 to the principal payment. I don;t want to be paying a mortgage after I retire, I want to have this paid off. Of course - in the US, that STILL doesn't mean I own my home - if I fail to pay my taxes, they can take my home. Yup, fail to pay a tax of $5000 and they can take a house currently worth about $240k. As in - I get nothing, kicked out to the streets. This is where a lot of the flippers get their properties, from tax auctions, all the selling party is looking to get is the taxes owed plus auction fees, so you have extravagant properties selling for pennies on the dollar. Of course, it IS an auction so if there is much competition, the price could go way up.
What Dave wants to do in regards to buying a house and making that the new EEVBlog Lab - that wouldn't work in most US communities due to zoning laws. No one generally says anything if you use a spare bedroom as an office and run a consulting business out of your house, or sell baskets or something as a side line. But unless the zoning allows commercial use of the property, you can't set up a full fledged business, even if the only difference is you might get a few more delivery trucks compared to the average person (yeah, so I order a lot from Amazon - big deal). Even if there is no noise, smells (well, so much for blowing up capacitors...) or constant coming and going disturbing the neighbors, it's simply not allowed in an area zoned residential.
As for Fran's situation, without the verifiable income, she's out of luck. ANd many banks have limits on how much of your down payment can come from gifts rather than directly from your own savings. You will often need to produce documentation proving it truly is a gift, even from family members, and not a loan you are expected to pay back. This generally applies to significant sums - say your parents gift you $10k towards a down payment, most banks will require a signed letter from your parents stating that this is a gift, free and clear of an obligation.
And I've said it before, In the city limits of Philadelphia is about the worst possible place to live. There is an extra sales tax above the state one. There is an extra income tax above the state one. There are other nearby places to live that you can also manage without a car, that do not have these extra taxes. There are also plenty of places in this state where no one will care about LGBTQ status. There are for sure places she would NOT want to live in this state, but downtown Philadelphia is NOT the only 'safe' place. Good example, not that housing there is cheap, for sure, but I'm willing to bet she'd find even MORE acceptance in New Hope, just a short distance north of Philadelphia. None of the extra taxes, but hosuing costs there are quite high, so it's not ideal across the board, but on the lifestyle issue, it probably doesn't get much better.