A "high income" is relative. They might actually have a well-calibrated expectation for what "high" means based on being close to people who don't have high inc

A "high income" is relative. They might actually have a well-calibrated expectation for what "high" means based on being close to people who don't have high incomes---that is, being in the top 25% should be high by any measure, but in plenty of US cities, even being in the top 25% is no guarantee that you'll be able to afford a mortgage as well as other very important expenses like childcare, paying off student loan debt, caring for extended family, etc, etc. You could look at a situation like this and tell someone to "just change something" or be patient, but the reality is simply much more complicated. People who are struggling to deal with these scenarios are the ones who are best equipped to assess them, not people looking in from the outside.