Is it reasonable for a young couple just starting out to buy a house in their preferred location - especially in the $1 Million range. That was never a possibility for me as a member of the "older generation". Buying a house meant living quite a distance from employment - a choice to make.
What's quite a distance? 10 miles from work? 20 miles from work? 30 miles from work?
Am I saying it is REASONABLE for a young couple to buy that? No. But 30 years ago that same young couple had opportunities to do so. My in-laws bought a 4 bedroom house in one of Toronto's better neighbourhoods 2 years after they graduated (he from law school, she from undergrad). And she was a stay-at-home mom. Of 4 children. It is completely disingenuous for you to pretend that we can achieve the same sort of financial security in this day and age.
My Mom was a teacher and my Dad was a laborer - they didn't make very much money at all and bought a house in 3 years after moving to Canada. As refugees. In Toronto. Yes, they worked hard, but it was also actually affordable. Today? They'd be living in some shit apartment.
And who had these stable jobs with fat pensions?
Literally almost every member of my parents' social circle and my husband's parents' social circle.
By the way, if all these homes are worth $1 Million or more, are we not living in a time of prosperity?
Yes and no. Keep in mind that in Toronto, over the last three years, single family homes have risen 35% in price. This is to say nothing of the similarly steady rise in the 3 years prior to that. My parents bought their current house in 2003, and in 10 years it's more than doubled in price. Do you think that our salaries have doubled in price? Right.
So what's happened is that older people who bought their homes many years ago at a reasonable cost - yes, I know mortgage rates were higher but even so, homes were more affordable (an example are my in-laws who bought a house for $140K in 1981, which is now worth about $1.8-$2M) are now putting them on the market, but who is buying? Wealthy young couples (rare) or foreign investors (common) or middle/upper middle families who took on inappropriate debt loads, with bank approval (fairly common).
None of this suggests we are living in prosperity.