This is a simple equation.
Parents starting out in the 1950’s and ‘60’s started poor, but with jobs that had tracks for promotion with greater income, job security, and gradual, methodical economic improvement. Importantly, they had a timetable that gave them a large window to have and raise children.
However, college graduates today are starting out deeply in debt. Until that debt is paid, they have to delay their timetable for marriage, children, and home ownership. If they delay too long, they are soon “out of the window” for these things.
Add to that in the 1950s and ‘60’s, home prices were based on the cost of the land and construction, as well as some profit for the contractors and subcontrators. But today, home are priced at 3-4 times the value of these things. Home builders expect 100% or more profit from each home they build, far beyond inflation.
Back then, a house that cost $10,000 to build could sell for $17,000 on a 30-year lease. Today a house that costs $30,000 to build can have a price of $300,000 or more.
The problem is that everything that people really want has been larded up with extraneous expenses, so they can’t afford it anymore. Willie Sutton used to say he robbed banks because that is where the money was. Nowadays, people run universities or charge property tax.
The result is that young people cannot afford to graduate without crushing death, get married, start a family or buy a house. Their decisions to forgo these things are perfectly rational, because the costs of doing all of these things is just so damn high.
One thing you are forgetting is the cost of regulation that has ballooned over the last 40 years. The first thing you need to do before subdividing property is to have the government inspectors come in, do the A2survey, the Environmental impact study, the soil type engineering survey, and in some areas the school use impact study -- That's right, permits can be declined because the town determines that Property taxes on that house will not cover the school costs of the house.
it's to the point that in order to operate in certain areas that contractors and developers need to budget for "Unforeseen Incidentals" (AKA bribes) and all of these costs need to be included in the cost of the house.
Good one, but today a house that cost thirty thousand to build is called a mobile home. It cost 45 dollars a finished foot to build a home years ago. That is the big problem today, home prices have dropped but building materials has not.