The math: Take an average US citizen making $15/hr, taxed 20% is taking home $12/hr
$12/hr is $25,000/year
If they saved 10% of their paycheck each year that's $2,500 at the end of the year (average amount the boomers saved in their 20s and 30s).
An average home in the US costs ~$416,000 right now, give or take where to live.
20% downpayment is $83,200
$83,200 / $2,500 = 33.28 years to afford the downpayment.
Now if they aggressively save, don't have kids, eat ramen, cut cable, and save 50% of their paycheck each year:
Saving 50% of their take-home pay is $12,500 at the end of the year. It would “only” take 6.7 years to save up for the house, but you couldn't do much. Essentially after college, If you completely skip your 20s, you could have a house by the time you are 30. And remember, a lot of congressman are fighting a $15/hr minimum wage, because this is clearly too much money for working 40 hours a week.
Oh, and hopefully they don't get sick eating ramen and incur a hefty medical bill of $5,000 (hitting their deductible) because that would set them back months or years.
My point of this post is to say, why do we lay down and accept this abuse? Why is it morally acceptable to take 33 years for the average person to save up for a moderately priced home working 40 hours a week? When do people take to the streets and demand a better life for their labor?