eli5 – Why is the cost of housing so high compared to wages?

Question

I see charts from the 1960’s – 2000 showing wages keeping up with the cost of housing. Then there’s a huge boom in housing cost. What factors caused the price to jump so high? Is it only the low interest rates, or did something else happen?

For example: [https://imgur.com/a/8HWIlqx](https://imgur.com/a/8HWIlqx)

Edit:

This guys just uploaded a video today answering the question I posted. He says a lot of the same things that you guys said too[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9DBjfhWAE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9DBjfhWAE)

In: 50

Answer 1

I feel like a lot of people in here are ignoring good ole supply and demand. People are willing to pay more for housing, so housing goes up. This is because there’s been an uptick of investors and corporations buying housing so they can use them as rental properties. A very large portion of houses aren’t owned by the people living in them anymore.