Yes, it's demonstrably harder. A house that cost 2.5x the median household income in 1985 costs 4-5x today in most markets. Your parents could buy a house on one income while the other person stayed home. Try that math now.

But the fuller picture is messier. Rates are higher now, but they were catastrophic in the 80s too (12%+). Your parents might have bought smaller, older houses and lived through decades of maintenance debt. They had different tradeoffs.

The real shift is psychological. Home ownership became *the* marker of adult success and financial security. Your parents owned to live somewhere. A lot of people today own because it's supposed to be an investment, a wealth builder, a retirement plan. That's a different thing entirely.

So yes, harder to buy. But also: the pressure to buy is way more intense, the expectations are higher, and housing got financialized in a way that made it both more expensive and more necessary.