The problem is that the 0.01% -- households worth more than ~$100M -- have received almost all the wealth gains since 1980. That's not just real estate -- it has to do with globalization as well as tax and policy decision.
So the very rich have gotten much richer, while median incomes (I.e. middle class incomes) have not increased.
See Fig 1 of this paper: https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2014.pdf
It's not surprising that those who started with the most, also got the most gains.
1) Reagan fired the air traffic controllers in 1981.
2) This set off a wave of anti-union action - http://www.alternet.org/story/154595/how_ronald_reagan_broke... - causing the great decoupling of wages and productivity: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Producti...
3) ...which caused staggering levels of wealth inequality: http://www.bankers-anonymous.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/...
4) And all that accumulated wealth ended up being lent back in the form of loans (e.g. student loans), mortgages as well as bidding up the price of real estate which your grandma - a 'boomer' profited a small amount from - which is why this is actually all her fault.
The problem of income inequality is one and the same as the housing crisis - ie, the wealth gap is nearly entirely explained by real estate.