I don’t understand the point of these posts - at this point we all understand that the economy has changed in the last 60+ years and even changed dramatically in 2000, 2008, and 2019 in rapid succession.
I’ve seen a lot of danger in belaboring these sorts of point, often sowing the seeds of hopelessness, generational dissent (which ultimately isn’t productive), and it never seems to come with a meaningful call to action or what better advice would be.
Which is concerning given the rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts in younger generations vs previous.
The point is that not all do. My parents don't. I'm young, employed, have savings, invest money, 0 debt and my parents still want to lecture me about how I should be living my life and where I should be living because that's what they did at their age. They still think rent costs as much as it did 30 years ago.
FOR WHO? LOL Even with two people that is almost 100k + salary.
Your math only looks good because your Median income is absolute dogwater made up. Even the rent is crap. I was paying $700 for rent in 2005, not 1995.
One should look at the median individual monthly income which is on average $3,850. The 2025 figure you quote is an 87k a year salary. The individual figure works out to between 42-50k a year and even that is pretty high with many hourly workers still in the $16-20 range putting their yearly in the 30 thousands and many gig workers lower still.
That puts median rent at 55% of income or higher for the average US citizen.
"One should look at the median individual monthly income"
Sure - but that makes 2025 look BETTER vs 1995 than using household income, not worse.
2025 -
Median rent: $1,696
Median individual monthly income: $4398 (Median individual yearly income was $52,770)
Percentage of median income to afford median rent: 38.6%
1995 -
Median rent: $655
Median monthly income: $1,625 (Median individual yearly income was $19,502)
Percentage of median income to afford median rent: 40.3%
These numbers don't make sense to compare. The median income American is not renting. Renters skew low income.
In reality, the percent of Americans paying more than 30% of income to rent has skyrocketed. It's now HALF of all renters.
"In 1960, about one in four renters paid more than 30 percent of income for housing. Today, one in two are cost burdened. Even in 1980, following two decades of worsening affordability, the cost-burdened share of renters was just above a third."
Sorry man, I don't believe government websites that change every 5 years, especially this admins. I lived through the 90's, payed rent in the 90's. A 1-2 bedroom was cheap as fuck, it wasn't anywhere near 700.
"DELANE APARTMENTS (313)439-7374 1 BEDROOM APT. for rent in Milan area Newly decorated. Large living room, bedroom, modem kitchen; Separate entrance. Covered parking space included. Available now. Nonsmoker, please. $450/mo. plus phone."
"ONE BEDROOM APT. Everything included. $450/mo. plus security deposit"
"3-BEDROOM COUNTRY apartment with view. Washer, dryer, new carpet no pets. $625/mo. plus utilities"
" LARGE LOFT-TYPE apartment in Clinton with 1 bedroom and small office. Appliances included. Partly furnished I needed. Ideal for working couple. $500/mo. No pets or waterbed. "
First off, the number you cited for median rent ($655) doesn’t align with the table you linked. If we linearly interpolate between 1990 and 2000 to get 1995 we get about $587 for monthly rent in constant 2000 dollars.
Next, from what I can find, the median income that you cite is the nominal value in 1995 (ie not adjusted for inflation). But when you’re comparing it to the rent price that you cited, you have to adjust the dollars to constant 2000 dollars. Adjusting $2840 in 1995 would be roughly equivalent to about $3,200 in 2000 dollars.
With these we can do the calculation you did previously. We could further adjust these to 2025 dollars, but since we’re just using a simple inflation calculation, ultimately looking at a ratio/percentage, it shouldn’t matter. With these new numbers, we get about 18% of income going towards rent. As far as I’m aware, there’s a difference between 23% and 18%.
Moreover, while medians are usually the best single comparison for an entire population, I would be very interested to know how these things have changed throughout different quantiles in the income distribution. Essentially, if we assume that median incomes and prices reflect middle-class things, then what we are looking at is how these things have changed for people who are solidly middle-class. I suspect things are worse for people on the bottom end.
Lastly, the biggest problem is that it would be one thing if this change was happening only with housing. But the cost of essentials and other important things like healthcare and education have exploded. We know wages haven’t kept up with productivity or inflation. Something has to give here.
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u/draconicmonkey 18h ago
I don’t understand the point of these posts - at this point we all understand that the economy has changed in the last 60+ years and even changed dramatically in 2000, 2008, and 2019 in rapid succession.
I’ve seen a lot of danger in belaboring these sorts of point, often sowing the seeds of hopelessness, generational dissent (which ultimately isn’t productive), and it never seems to come with a meaningful call to action or what better advice would be.
Which is concerning given the rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts in younger generations vs previous.