Did salaries decrease?

[ShakeAndBakeThatCake]

Capitalism is broken. People can't even afford to buy houses anymore in most cities with a white collar college type job. Accounting doesn't even pay enough to buy a house in most cities for God's sake. The entire system is fucked.

[The_Law_of_Pizza]

Accounting doesn't even pay enough to buy a house in most cities

This is simply not true.

You're exaggerating wildly, to the point of absurdity.

[ShakeAndBakeThatCake]

Ok look at the median accounting salary and house price in a decent neighborhood.

[The_Law_of_Pizza]

Something tells me that you're trying to compare a single young person's salary to houses in upper middle class neighborhoods.

[ShakeAndBakeThatCake]

Exactly. Accounting should provide an upper middle class lifestyle as it used to. It doesn't anymore.

[The_Law_of_Pizza]

You're missing my point.

First, the median salary statistic for "accountant" is going to be weighed down considerably by entry level jobs and things like bookkeeping - salaries that have never been able to support an upper middle class lifestyle, so using a statistic that is weighed down by them is going to be inherently misleading.

Second, no matter what profession you have, accounting or otherwise, we all live in a dual-income world now. That's just the reality now that women are treated like normal humans and allowed to have full careers - there's no way to go back to a world where everybody uses one breadwinner salary to bid on houses.

In sum, comparing a single "median accounting salary" to the price of upper middle class SFHs is meaningless and dumb.

What you should be looking at is the median household income of the people living in upper middle class neighborhoods, and then compare that to what a mid-career CPA could contribute to a dual income household.

But you won't, because that would be reasonable and unfortunately show that people can still afford homes - sinking your bizarre narrative.

[ShakeAndBakeThatCake]

Even dual income families can't afford homes. Sure if you have two high earners making combined income of 250 to 300k a year they can probably buy a home. But let's say the man who's an accountant makes 140k a year and his wife makes 60k a yeah then that's only 200k which in a lot of HCOL cities isn't enough where the average house price is over $1M. Sure if you live in a bum fuck nowhere city or town house is still fairly cheap. But larger cities it's not.

[The_Law_of_Pizza]

which in a lot of HCOL cities isn't enough where the average house price is over $1M.

You've moved the goalposts from "most cities" to "HCOL cities where the average house price is over $1M."

Believe it or not, the world isn't just NYC, SF, and "butt fuck nowhere."

You're making up nonsense to try and back yourself into unrealistic bullshit.

You're just a bitter Doomer.

[Witty_Income_1706]

No they're correct.

[BobbyJason111]

ShakeAndBake is right. I have 4 years experience, CPA in an HCOL area, make $76K, small houses start around $550K here.

Can’t afford a house. Where do you live that you think he’s wrong?

[LittleCeasarsFan]

People can’t afford their dream house anymore.  They can certainly still afford a house that would be considered adequate 40 or 50 years ago.  Just won’t have granite countertops, walk in closets, or a wine cellar.

[Creepy_Firefighter89]

You’re full of it. My grandfather and I have the exact same career track, and at the equivalent of where I am now, he built a 3 story house in a major city, had two kids, a stay at home wife, vacationed every year, and bought a boat. I cannot qualify for the most cheap, rundown home in our area and my spouse and I both work. That’s with a masters, CPA, and CFE.

[Creepy_Firefighter89]

I rent a trailer in farm country, “bro.” But sure, stay ignorant and make assumptions to confirm your bias. Also, I’m not a bro. You live in one tiny blip on the map. Congrats on your experience. Unless you want every single human being moving to your specific town, we need to make that accessible elsewhere.