I bought my 1,200 sqft house in a town of 80,000 people for $60,000.
:)
You gotta be willing to look at the whole country instead of just major cities. But most people complaining about not having enough money think they’re entitled to live in expensive areas.
If someone is being paid to work in those expensive areas, the pay should be sufficient to live in or near those expensive areas. It’s entitlement for the employer class that this isn’t the case. The implications of it not being the case (the existence of a class of people in these areas that struggle to afford basic necessities, the extension of psyche-degrading and environmentally destructive commutes, the tearing apart of our societal fabric that comes from isolated suburban commuting living) are all horrificly negative at scale. You may live and work in a situation that is independent of those negatives (you found a good enough paying job in a low cost of living area, or maybe even you work remote, or you don’t mind the isolation and destructive nature of the exurban commute) and that is good for you, but to imply that the whole nation needs to follow your example or stop complaining shows a sore lack of awareness about how scalable the solution you personally found is.