re: The Medium income Amercan Family now earns 1/2 the income needed to buy the avg home.

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not sure what "point" is even trying to be made here, it's just a fact that housing is simply the most unaffordable its ever been. You can live in a house or not to state that fact, doesnt really matter. Agian, the house we live in would have gone for $300k back in 2020-2021, back when interest rates were 2-3%. Last year our house would have sold, and quickly for $450k-$460k, and with 6-7% interest rates.

You dont see how thats an absolutely insane appreciation in a short amount of time DESPITE rates going up. This is pretty simple math here

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The average home sale price in 1980 was just over $76,000. By 1989 that had increased to just under $149,000. That's a longer time frame that the one you posted, but remember that in the 1980s interest rates got as high as 18.6% and were still at almost 10% at their lowest point in 1989.

Oh, and those new houses being built in1980 were on average 40% smaller than the new ones being built today, and the used ones on the market back then were even smaller than that. Bottom line, you get more house for your money now...and that's a direct result of consumer demand. We as consumers chose that.

So considering all the factors, I'm not sure it's really more unaffordable than it's ever been. I think people think that for two reasons:

1. They remember the 90s, and during the 90s it was the most AFFORDABLE it's ever been, at least in modern history. But the 90s were not the baseline. They were an outlier.

2. We have a victim culture now that wasn't nearly as evolved back then and we have social media and the internet and 300 24 hour news channels telling people that things are the worst they've ever been.