sdrealtor, you’re right, I am probably yearning for the past. You make it sound like a good thing that both spouses work. What was the name of that book….”The Two income trap”. The double income is part of the reason (maybe the whole reason) we’re in the mess now. Home prices and prices for many other goods are out of whack. And the seller just extends the length of time we have to pay for things. I think maybe we have lost sight of some values, just to have more stuff than our neighbor. Or have the same stuff as our neighbor. I grew up in a very small town and my mom didn’t work. She stayed home and raised four children. Get this, mom and dad paid $5,000 for their home back in 1951. Granted, it was a small home, but they raised four children in it. My wife’s parents paid $25,000 for a split level home in Falls Church Va. Not sure of the date, but at least forty years ago I guess. I think the home now is assessed at $560,000. So I wonder, are prices in line now as compared to back then…. comparing salaries then with now and home prices then with now? To me, back then, you bought a house very cheap compared to how great your salary will increase over time. But today, you pay so much for a home, but your salary isn’t going to increase as much percentage wise as in the past. Am I making any sense this early in the morning?
“AT: [Laughs] Right. Of course, the notion that mothers are all going to run pell-mell back to the hearth and turn back the clock to 1950 is absurd. But that aside, a big part of the two-income trap is that families have basically bid up the cost of living. Housing is a big example. A generation ago, an average family could buy an average home on one income. Today you can’t do that in three-quarters of American cities. We all know that housing prices are going up, but what most people don’t realize is that this has become a family problem. Housing prices are rising twice as fast for families with kids. “
