But again I"m not placing blame on any one thing. I'm simply saying the totality of costs for big ticket items are making the american dream untenable for a growing population. education has always been the path to success. college tuition has exploded. fancy amenities, administrative bloat, all kinds of intra university reasons, as well as external forces like the economy/state funding etc. states were getting squeezed with medicare expenses etc limiting the amount that could be earmarked for universities. public funding hit historic lows not long ago and tuition offset the losses. students on average take longer to graduate today. combine those factors/forces and kids are coming out with more debt that takes longer to pay off. education will always be the pathway to "the american dream" for the lion's share of our population. the median household income today is $70k. some of these schools are that a year today. a car is $50k. twenty years ago the median household income was $42k and a car $20k in 90 it was $35k and $15k. 80 it was $21k and $7k.Real estate prices will correct. People are still using comps from a 3% mortgage environment vs the 7% of today. The buyer pool has shrunk considerably due to rate increases.
The reality is that a $700k home in the 3% rate environment was very achievable for many dual income, college educated households, even in their early 30s. And there are a lot of them out there. But at 7% the numbers just don't work.
i understand the impact of rates etc. the cost of the american dream has exploded and for the average joe wages aren't keeping up