We Earn Double Our Parents: We Still Can't Afford Their House

A factory worker in 1970 bought a house on one salary. Today it takes two incomes and they still can't afford the same house. More money, less house. That shouldn't be possible, so I dug into the numbers to find where it broke. The answer isn't "your parents had it easy," and it isn't "you spend too much." It's hiding in a part of the house almost nobody talks about. I also land on a take that goes against a lot of finance advice right now: I still think getting on the property ladder matters — even though everything in this video proves how much harder it's become. I might be wrong. Tell me in the comments — that's where I change my mind. I'm 45, building toward a €300K portfolio later than ideal, with a family, in public. If that's the kind of honest, slow-wealth investing you're after, this is the channel. — Not financial advice. My own view and reasoning. — SOURCES US new house prices: US Census Bureau & HUD (FRED: MSPNHSUSA) 1970 manufacturing wages: US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024 production worker pay: BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2024 Home size & price per sq ft: US Census Bureau, Characteristics of New Housing Land vs structure (the "one number"): Knoll, Schularick & Steger (2017), American Economic Review Land share of home value: Davis & Heathcote (2007), Journal of Monetary Economics The two-income trap: Warren & Warren Tyagi (2003) Two-income trap critique: People's Policy Project (2019) European housing data: Eurostat (House Price Index & HICP, 2010–2024) CHAPTERS 00:00 The impossible math 00:50 Two families, same house 02:25 "You just want granite countertops" 03:37 The one number nobody mentions 05:40 Why the second income vanished 07:55 It's not just America 08:34 So should you still buy? (I'll annoy people here) #investing #personalfinance #housing