My parents bought houses for far less money, even adjused for inflation, than I can. Also, the wages have not kept up. It's the unfortunate reality of a confluence of factors (mostly the avaricious application of capitalism) that led these two numbers (wages and cost of housing) to diverge. Significantly. Granted, my wife and I own a home, but we both work. Some factors in our favor: we work from home, so transportation is minimized. That also allows us to juggle taking care of the kids. The rest of it is just planning and saving and such. I don't mean to sound rude or snarky, I just am never sure who knows the realities of living in a world beset by venture capital and oligarchs increasingly accumulate more of everything and looking for ways to minimize their costs that help them build the obscene wealth that they have. My vitriol is directed at those terrible dragons of the modern age.