Making house payments is not ownership.
In 2011 the average cost per square foot for a home in the US was $130.
Alternative building techniques provide homes that far exceed California earthquake requirements, last hundreds of years with little maintenance, require far less energy to run, are nearly fireproof, and cost $25 per square foot. This is not a dream, it’s reality. http://calearth.org/ and http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/ offer just a tiny portion of the information available.
These homes require much less wood to build, employ passive solar techniques to reduce or even eliminate the need for HVAC systems, and put real home ownership in reach to people who might otherwise never be able to imagine it.
If fixing the problem is the goal, alternative housing is an answer.