My wife is a realtor and aside from the well-known market craziness going on right now the other problem she's been seeing for the past 10-15 years is today's i

My wife is a realtor and aside from the well-known market craziness going on right now the other problem she's been seeing for the past 10-15 years is today's idea of a "starter home" or "first home" is the kind of home people would have purchased previously when they reached their peak earning potential. The untold story is there's a lot of affordable housing but there isn't a much of a market for it. Everyone wants their "dream home" from day one. Those kinds of homes have always been expensive and that hasn't changed. What people have yet to realize is you can't have it all. You wan to live in a cool, hip city with loads of high-paying jobs? You're going to pay for it. You want to live in the cool spot of that uber cool city? Now you're really going to pay for it! Want to move to a mid-size city in the U.S. Midwest? You have lots of affordable options. You want to buy a starter home in one of those mid-size cities in the Midwest? I guarantee you'll pay less than half for your mortgage than what you're currently paying in rent and you'll have a bigger house and a yard. But you can't have it all - you simply can't afford it.