I live in NYC. Gentrification happens like this right now: 1. lower income neighborhood becomes trendy because poor artists (read: cool people) live there beca

I live in NYC. Gentrification happens like this right now: 1. lower income neighborhood becomes trendy because poor artists (read: cool people) live there because it's cheap. 2. Rich people who want to be cool start to also move there for more access to culture. 3. This is the "sauce": Wealthy developers buy up 3 story homes and convert them into 3 apartments. (I live in one.) 4. They then rent these apartments out at rates that are "affordable" to a person willing to live with 4 other roommates. 5. The poor lower income people (read: families) that used to live there are getting priced out due to the wealthy developers and "single" people who are banding together. Now, your point about comparing to my parents: they purchased a house when they were 2 years younger than I am now. (mid late 20's) I work in tech, so I make close to 2-3x more than most of my non-tech friends. I'm still about ~4 years away from comfortably being able to put a downpayment on a home in anywhere I want to live and I live debt free and am an aggressive saver. For most of my non-tech friends, home ownership is literally a dream.