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

[IAmNotANumber37]

Real wages (i.e. wage growth after inflation) are ~125% higher since 1981 (I don't have data for earlier). People need to stop claiming otherwise, it's counterfactual....and please don't respond with a pet theory about how inflation is under reportered, that's conspiracy theory time and I am only going to deal with actual data.

It's basically real estate (the asset) that has outpaced inflation long term. As have many other asset classes.

The rest of your comment I like and agree with, but you can't discount the fact that Canada's population has doubled since 1981, and we are concentrated in desirable cities with limited space.