I'm kind of surprised the article didn't mention the role of dual-income households. For generations, a single income was the norm and generally able to provide a better quality of life (by standards like home size, discretionary spending, etc...) than your parents' generation.<p>Over time, two incomes went from providing far more than a family needed to being a practical necessity in many markets. I can't imagine buying the type of home I'd like to live in on even my relatively high (by national standards) Bay Area salary alone, and yet many families still choose to live here.<p>Once a family relies on two incomes just to pay the rent, it becomes harder to pick up and move to a different part of the country unless both partners can do it at the same time. Even intra-county moves are more difficult when two partners are working full-time and don't want to deal with the stresses of moving on top of their regular jobs.<p>Maybe the pendulum will swing back as a result of changing expectations (about where to live, how much home to buy, what kind of job you need to have), or maybe remote work will save us all and let us move out of the expensive areas where our jobs are. But for now, I think the rise of the dual-income household is among the biggest factors keeping us in place.