In the 40s and 50s a middle class household could get by just fine (and the house be bought) by a single income earner. > Has that really changed? Yes. From h

In the 40s and 50s a middle class household could get by just fine (and the house be bought) by a single income earner. > Has that really changed? Yes. From http://www.mybudget360.com/the-magical-2-housing-ratio-between-median-nationwide-home-prices-and-household-income/ http://www.mybudget360.com/the-magical-2-housing-ratio-betwe...: > Back in 1950 the median home price cost a little above 2 times the annual median household income [2.2] > in 1970 the ratio became more favorable to US households [1.7] > After this point[..] prices remained fairly stable only because of the two income household, until 2000 [2.3] > After this point, things went haywire. Even today after the [subprime mortgage crisis] the ratio is still out of sync with 50 years of data [3.3] Keep in mind that this data is comparing housing prices to household income, not per-capita income.