We aren't poorer (well we might be a little bit because of the Great Recession), housing just costs a lot more than it used to. Our parents just didn't get to

We aren't poorer (well we might be a little bit because of the Great Recession), housing just costs a lot more than it used to. Our parents just didn't get to buy a house for cheap. They also got all the increase in value. We have to buy an expensive house that probably won't increase in value all that much. Why is housing more expensive? I'm not totally sure, but I suspect it's the effect of stretching suburbia to the limits. When my parents house was built it was the frontier between rural Illinois and the Chicago suburbs. Now it's considered a middle rung suburb. There are suburbs an hour further away from Chicago. But we've hit the limits on what a person can tolerate re:commutes. You just can't commute for over 2 hours each way. We should be rezoning inner rung suburbs and cities for increased density housing. Then again telecommuting and/or autonomous cars might destroy all the downsides to commuting.