I'm paying 3x my states monthly minimum wage for hourly workers to own in a fairly modest 1100 sqft house in a semi walkable area in a major city.

Before here I used to pay my states monthly minimum wage for hourly workers to live in a fucking slum just outside the city. House was by an interstate so I got soot on anything I left outside, all the houses in the neighborhood were water damaged and molded to hell, the roads were so cracked it was fucking up cars, and everyone who lived there seemed miserable.

It's grind or die, I got so fucking sick living in alleged affordable housing. Nerve damage and all kinds of weird chronic health problems from living in such a toxic death trap for years. They don't call it the Dirty South for nothing, this place is completely fucked.

In two years I've paid $104,000 to my mortgage!

...why is it only $17,000 lower...

Minimum wage isn't enough to pay for a roof over your head... unless you mean the roof of a car...