That's what I thought when I was 24. By 34 I bought the house I'm writing this from for what I thought was an extravagant amount of money, and by 44 I'd paid it

That's what I thought when I was 24. By 34 I bought the house I'm writing this from for what I thought was an extravagant amount of money, and by 44 I'd paid it off. It is now 3.5x the price I paid. That price was 2x of what the original owner paid a decade before me. I did have some money when I bought the house (obviously) but it still seemed insane. And I think that's actually sort of by design. It's the largest purchase most people will make in their lives, and there is one million ways to screw it up, so of course it feels insane and uncomfortable. And yet, people manage to scrounge up enough money and courage to buy real estate somehow. Which is to say, if you're on this site, chances are you'll be able to afford a house, just not at the price you like. Your income will track inflation much better than that of Joe Autoworker or Jim Farmer. The big downside for you is going to be that most tax brackets aren't revised upward with inflation, so you might find yourself paying nutty effective tax rates that you're voting for right now. :-)