Millennial here. I was talking to my mom about this recently. We worked out the math of what I earn vs my dad at my age. Then we looked at what I laid for my house vs what they paid for theirs. For context, my parents still live in the same house I grew up in, and my house is in the same neighborhood and roughly the same size.

Their house in 1983 dollars would be about $165k today. My house was $275k in 2019, and that was well below most reasonable comps at the time. Now it's supposedly worth $400k. At least that's what my taxes and insurance are based on.

My dad had a solid white collar job. Not c suite, but firmly middle class at the time. I'm finally in a similar position after the 2008 and 2020 bullshit.

His salary when he was about 40 would be $140k in today dollars. I earn nowhere near that and have way more house debt.

Putting it in those terms was really eye opening for both of us. Most of my friends don't have kids and don't own a house. Shit, some still even live at home with their parents. We're definitely not doing better than our baby boomer parents. The American dream died a generation or two before mine.