40 years ago a home in the Bay Area cost about 3x median income. Now it is more than 10x. Buyers in 1981 benefitted enormously from high interest rates. I know they whine about it now, but objectively it was a massive windfall for buyers.
It was a wealth grab. They're the ones that voted for prop 13, and they're the ones benefitting. Meanwhile it's the Millennials and all subsequent generations that are stuck paying for their social security.
> 40 years ago a home in the Bay Area cost about 3x median income. Now it is more than 10x.
Interest rated have fallen 10x
> Buyers in 1981 benefitted enormously from high interest rates.
They didn’t benefit from paying more for a money loan. They benefited from being able to refinance on always lower rates, and the corresponding rise in asset price
> so the barriers to entry are so much higher for those who didn’t have the foresight to purchase a home 40 years ago.
40 years ago it was still expensive to buy otherwise everyone would have bought, including the investment funds