I have college degrees and sought after skills that are highly paid for, I just don't get highly paid for those skills or degrees. They're still valuable in the

I have college degrees and sought after skills that are highly paid for, I just don't get highly paid for those skills or degrees. They're still valuable in the abstract, but I get by on entirely unrelated work and pay that most HN users might feel is abject poverty. And that's OK to me, for the most part. I have a roof overhead and food on the table and am intellectually challenged every day, if not in the ways I thought I would be. Yet I'm still part of this squeeze, the segment of America that cannot buy a home because I cannot outbid others because I cannot afford to save up enough to put down more down-payment, despite the many grants/programs meant to help people like me. Sellers just won't sell, since they get better offers. In the meantime, I rent. If you gave me one year of not having to pay rent (hello eviction moratorium, wish I had met you), I would be able to be barely competitive in a LCOL area for a home that would need me to bribe an inspector to qualify for those grants/programs. Around here it's not a supply and demand issue, either; there are plenty vacant places, both low and high end. It's just that owners (corporate and individual alike) don't feel any need to take on any risk. Same with renting. Risky tenants without hefty deposit and/or collateral aren't worth it, not one bit. The rest of us suffer for those who can't behave, as usual. It'll work itself out, though, or it won't, and I'll age out of it all and it'll be a problem for my kids to handle. That's how it goes.