It's funny, you know, I have a friend who is a few years older than me, in his mid fifties, who always rented in trendy inner-west locations of sydney. Way back in the mid 90s he would complain how unaffordable real estate was. At that time I bought a house in the outer suburbs of Sydney and he mocked the whole concept of living so far from work, wasting time travelling on trains, etc. His golden rule was to never buy real estate more than 5Ks from the city centre.The ones most of us are discussing here are the young ones that we are hearing online or seeing in newspaper articles (although the media do try to find a good sob story) who are starting out and who have been bombarded with advertising, images of cool or trendy ways of living, etc. who think it sucks to start at the bottom with a modest 3/1/1 outside of the CBD or tiny unit in the CBD.
As the years progressed, he was always just behind being able to afford what he wanted, always complaining how expensive "well-located" housing was.
Now, today, he is still renting -- in the mid-ring suburbs of Melbourne.
Every generation's got them.