Almost 50 here, and I've been stymied my whole life!

When did this start? Last I checked, a grand could get a new car, two houses, with enough left over for a haircut. Its just so cheap and affordable.

If anything, I have too much house... no wait, too much rent.

That's the point of higher interest rates, it makes it harder to buy houses, so the prices stop going up. The other side of it though is that wages have to come up to meet the new price point. However without unions, or any real labor movement, in the US, wages are stagnant. If we ever have a sane president again, trade should eventually tighten the labor market enough for wage gains. Assuming anyone is willing to risk investing in America going forward.