With inflation and wages rising, I wanted to think about how it would look if the price of a house stayed the same and we just get paid less money. I think this comparison makes it a lot easier to see how little we are getting paid, vs the dollar rising and seemingly getting paid more.
The median price of a home in 1974 was around $30k. The minimum wage was $2/hr. If someone worked full time, negating income tax, it would take just over 7 years to pay off a house. Just for simplicity sake, there would be no other costs or interest on the home.
The median price of a home in 2021 was around $250k. Minimum wage being $7.25. With the same math as above, it would take over 16 years to pay off.
If instead of the dollar depreciating through inflation and things costing more, what if the median house price was locked in at $30k and we were simply paid less?
Our minimum wage would be around $0.86/hr.