Not only are the houses much bigger but families are also much smaller. It also ignores interest rates. Unless you're paying cash, the price of a home doesn't

Not only are the houses much bigger but families are also much smaller. It also ignores interest rates. Unless you're paying cash, the price of a home doesn't really matter -- what matters is your monthly payment. If you bought a house in the 80s, a huge chunk of change every month went to bankers, not to principle. So the fact that you got a "cheap" house doesn't really matter, because you were still paying an arm-and-a-leg for it.