I've thought about this and looked into this stuff a fair bit the last year or two. Partially because my stepsons are Gen Z and face this reality, and one of them frequently laments the cost of housing.
It does seem that there's a Gen Z camp that complains about the cost of things, and a Gen X/Boomer camp who complains Gen Z are whiners who mismanage their money.
It seems that there's truth to both sides. I'm probably only qualified to speak about my corner of the country, where I'm most familiar with the housing market and wages, and to a lesser extent, the lifestyle trends of Gen Z'ers. It really is the case that housing and some other things are more expensive, and it's harder to start out than it was for my peer group 25 years ago. It also really is the case that it's still more doable than they want to make it out to be, and that their expectations are significantly higher than ours were when we left the nest, or prepared to.
Seriously, if you press them on what, precisely, they think their life should be, I want to tell them to quit whining, we had no such luxury when we were that age either. It's like they look at the home and the lifestyle they've been living at home with us, and believe they should be able to transition to their own home and life, at the same quality of life as they were afforded by us. But when I first left home, I couldn't come close to having a home or a life like my parents did. Neither did I expect for that to be the case. I just kind of knew.....you start out, and things are thin for a while. Then, hopefully, you advance your career, you make more money, you save for more years......your station improves.
But I also want to tell the Boomer contingent who just complains about Gen Z whining and countering with endless incomplete stats that, yes, it actually is harder to start out, even at the starter level I'm talking about. So don't act like it's all in Gen Z's head and there's nothing going on here.
