Looks like someone hasn’t heard of stagflation and Paul Volcker. Way before that there were housing crises during other decades too.

Homes are overrated. Rented almost all my life out of desire for flexibility. Owned two houses for 5 years each, and regretted it both times. People divorce, move for better job, retirement and other reasons - all that is easier while renting.

I thinking renting works perfectly when you don't have kids. With kids, it's better to give them a place they don't just grow up but can come back to as well.

I grew up in my family house. Had all my childhood and school time there. All my nostalgia basically revolves around the house I grew up and played in. I see that in my dreams still.

I have been living in rented houses since my school finished with my parents and then now with my own kid on my own. Seeing how I don't have any attachment or those kind of memories from other rented places I have been through, my plan is for my kids to grow up in a place they can call their own.

> Yet they could afford _homes_

I’m not from USA, (so only educated guess whether statistics lie), but I wager that millions could not afford homes then and millions can afford a home today.

My most minimal effort attempt at stats follows.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/184902/homeownership-rat....

> …in 2023 the proportion of households occupied by owners declined to 65.7 percent…

Also:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeownership_in_the_United_...

(Shows that it was bellow 70% in 1989)

first graph has very sharp peaks and dips, but please note that the y axis has values from 62 till 70.

Based on this I would say that it would be misleading to state “in 1980 people could afford homes and today we can’t afford”

But I can see a lot of “outrage” in US media. My unrequested speculation: more people got college and university degrees, but that did not change their ability to own a home. (But it did change their expectation, especially how pricey degrees seem to be in USA)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_th... (percentage of educated population had has risen steadily since 1950)

You're conflating 'having a home' with home ownership, even though the GP talks about the hassles of dealing with landlords and therefore clearly includes renting.

Rent used to be a lot cheaper in the US. I'm not sure about the 1980s, but in the 1980s I had a spacious room in a nice San Francisco neighborhood for $300/month.

Median family income in 1980 was $21k. Also San Francisco back then may not have been the San Francisco of today. So if you factor in inflation and increase in desirability and local wages, this would make for a more meaningful comparison.

> Yet they could afford _homes_

Peak homeownership rate [1] in the 80's was 65.8%. Today, it is at 65.6%. And it has fluctuated in a narrow band since 1960's.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N