Hmmm… this does not jive with personal experience. Almost everyone I know in my boomer parents generation bought large homes with land on a single income and no college degree, and still have them… which they sit in alone, with entire floors of empty bedrooms they never enter. Most of my millennial friends have dual graduate degree dual six figure incomes but pretty much have to rent because a mortgage on a small single family home would not leave enough money for childcare so they could keep working. They technically could buy but they’d be stretched so thin it would be really hard, so they don’t.<p>For example, take home pay from two 100k salaries is about $11,850/mo total. A mortgage, taxes, and insurance on a 1.1 M home (a small 2 bedroom that needs work here in the Bay Area) could be $8k/mo, not considering upkeep costs. Childcare for two children would be ~3k/mo, already bringing it even, without food, cars, etc.