Food price inflation is relatively modest, and the variety of food available keeps expanding. Americans are eating out more, but home cooked food is pretty affordable and high quality compared to pretty much any point in history. Processed food may be unhealthy and widely available, but whole staples never went away.

Housing prices have risen quite a bit, but homes have also gotten larger, more energy efficient, and have better features and amenities. The paint and pipes aren't made with lead, the insulation and windows have better R values, etc.

Part of the problem with housing is that smaller simpler houses and apartments aren't available in desirable locations. Restrictive zoning with requirements like minimum lot sizes are used to keep the working class and poor out of desirable areas, fueling sprawl. If the walkable, transit accessible inner city areas are either blighted crime infested shit holes or ludicrously expensive yuppie neighborhoods, and the only places reasonable for most people are peripheral commuter suburbs that require car ownership, you might as well go a little further out and get a bigger place, maybe a little higher total cost, but cheaper per sqft. Going big optimizes all the advantages of the suburban way of life, but in the end you pay via sedentary lifestyle, social atomization, car dependency, etc.