And those low population areas carry low paying jobs, which are proportional to high population areas. Yes, we have a housing problem. For the average person on an average local income, a house is unaffordable. If you look back at the 70s, 80s, and 90s, houses cost many times more (before and after adjustment for local average income) now, regardless of where you look.
The key measure to compare everything is disposable income rather than inflation-adjusted this or that.
Disposable income of the 70s was a tiny fraction, many orders of magnitude smaller than the disposable income of 2024.
In addition, houses in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s are not comparable to houses today. Modern houses and cars should cost a lot more because they offer a lot more.
All I am saying here is that the picture is a lot more complicated and nuanced and needs a more detailed evaluation than a simplistic scaling factor into the past.
Well, it is average locally earned disposable income compared to local housing cost, as a percentage. And in that case, houses are ridiculously expensive now. Most of my prior generation relatives purchased homes in the 70s in their early 20s while working minimum wage jobs as single income households. They were forklift drivers and steel workers, required no education, yet somehow a house was cheaper than 2 years income. I think you need to question your understanding a little more thoroughly. Also look at how ridiculously cheap the average rent was... if you don't own, you rent, and rent was something like half of a paycheck, making saving for a house much easier.
