Average house price in Ireland in the late ’80s was €42,000. Adjusted for inflation, that is around €80,000 in today’s money. Mortgages were typically 20-25 year terms with first time buyers mostly in their 20s. Wage inflation grew by over 10%.
Nominal earnings are important as you essentially lock in a price in terms of nominal house price. You just have to keep up with the interest rate not the actual price fluctuation.
With mortgage terms of 20-25 years and buyers in their 20s many of this cohort became mortgage free between 2000-2015. They are aged circa late 50s to early 70s today.
As the average first time buyer increases in age then so does the age the mortgages get paid off. A warning from Australia – 36% of retireees have a mortgage
https://mlc.com.au/content/dam/mlc/documents/pdf/retirement/retirement-reports-housing-report.pdf… https://nfg.ie/average-age-of-first-time-buyers-increasing/
A single wage was enough. No childcare costs/rushing in the morning to drop kids off before you get to work. No increased obesity because both parents worked late several days in a row & now the shopping is overdue so you get takeaway. Everything compounds