Just found out my parents' generation bought houses for 3 times their salary

I was looking up old census data last night for a school project, and I stumbled onto a stat that totally threw me. Turns out back in 1975, the average home in my city cost about 3 times the median household income. Now it's closer to 7 or 8 times. That means my dad worked maybe 3 years to buy a house, while I'm looking at working over a decade just to get a starter place. I found this on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and I kept scrolling through old reports for an hour because I couldn't believe it. My parents never mentioned this to me, they just said to work harder and save more. Has anyone else looked up these old numbers and felt totally ripped off about the whole housing situation?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesser7912d ago

Man that's brutal, I feel you because finding out the math just does NOT add up anymore is a gut punch.

robert_anderson6912d ago

Gotta push back respectfully here @jesser79, I actually think the math works fine if you adjust expectations. Prices are up but so are wages in most fields, people just want the same house their parents bought in 1995.