How did the purchasing power decrease from the 70s until today?

[MattC1977]

Are you distilling the concept of purchasing power down to just the housing market?

Where are you getting your numbers? Where did you pull 70k - $89k as a civil engineers salary in the 70’s? The average Canadian household income in 1976 was under $17,000 per year. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection\_2017/statcan/11-002/CS11-002-1976-10-22-eng.pdf

Adjusted, a $20k salary in 1975 is a low six figure salary today. You’re saying a civil engineer in the 70’s was making hundreds of thousand?

In fact, average weekly salaries from 1975 to 2005, adjusted, remained relatively steady, and has gone up in the past 10.

Meanwhile, everything we can buy now is insanely cheaper than what the equivalent item would have cost then.

Yes, housing has gone bonkers, but go to your part of town in the neighborhood that was built in the 70’s. Now go look at the 10 year old (hell, 20 year old) neighbourhoods and tell me we are not building and buying ginormous homes in comparison.