Why, when I visited the US, was this European shocked by finding many Americans can't afford decent housing, can at best rent one single room in a house?

My first few residences, almost 50 years ago, were renting out a bedroom in someone's house. This was in a very high cost of living part of the US, and I resolved that problem by moving to a cheaper area several states away. So have things actually changed, or is it just the willingness to go through the preparation to get past those challenges?

Post high school, my Depression Baby parents pretty much unceremoniously dumped us kids on the sidewalk and said your turn now. Being the youngest, they took advantage of being empty nesters by selling the house and moving full time into an RV. I had no back up safety. I was thrown in the deep end of the pool of life, with only the financial swimming lessons I had been able to inadvertently absorb as life happened around me. We did not speak finances in our family, but parents gave an example of frugality and I knew they invested. That was the grand sum of my preparedness. I don't recommend the depth to which they took things, but not withstanding the sometimes dangerous side effects of their approach, I came out unscathed and above all wiser. I understood the difference between wants vs needs, and how to economize. I developed focus on what I wanted from life, which early on included having both a roof over my head and food on my plate. Probably didn't help that this was happening in the early 1980's, which was a tough time economically.

These are more the days of helicopter parents, constantly hovering over their kids and making sure nothing negative ever happens. It seems as though things have swung polar opposite of how I was raised, both extremes lacking balance. If one is always fawned on, given everything, how do you learn to distinguish between needs and wants, and how to get from where you are now to where you want to be? Yes, the media is focused on how expensive housing has become, and we hear the wailing of those proclaiming they can't afford to buy or even rent, WHERE THEY WANT TO BE. We live in one of those high COL areas now, and yet I continuously see stalled on the market older very livable homes that go unsold. Not HGTV ready, so no buyers, until a flipper comes along, throws a bit of paint on the walls and kitchen cabinets, rips out the smelly old carpet and puts in vinyl plank, at which point it sells in days for hundreds of thousands more than they paid. Frankly that was how we got to afford the house we are in.

WANT. NOW! Seems to be what is holding back those still living in roommate situations and not moving forward.

IP