I think livinincali made the correct observation. The only way a person’s mortgage payment can become “peanuts” is when there is wage inflation that meets or beats cost inflation in other basic needs like food, energy, healthcare, etc.

Whether it’s you, the next buyer, or your renter, most people depend on wages for purchasing power. Without wage inflation, cost inflation takes away from most people’s purchasing power. The one kind of inflation that the Fed hates is wage inflation…that seems to be the only thing they’ll fight. In the absence of wage inflation, I would not count on higher rents unless you run a flop house where people can bunk up in each of the rooms.

Back in the 70s, there was significant wage inflation. Much of that was due to the relative strength of unions and the lack of cheap overseas competitors, etc. Those conditions don’t exist today.