With regards to housing prices, I would argue that the decrease in interest rates over time. Mortgage rates were apparently about 10% in 1990[0], so borrowing $100,000 for a home would cost you about $877/mo for a 30 year loan, which equates to $1,746 in 2020 dollars according to an inflation calculator [1]. Assuming interest rates around 3% currently, you could borrow $420,000 but still have roughly the same monthly payment in 2020 dollars.
So, for the sake of argument, if an average workers salary had stayed exactly in-line with inflation, house prices could've gone up 4.2x and they would have spent about the same amount of their monthly expenses on the loan per month. Lots of caveats that make this not as true in practice though (taxes, ability to refinance in the future at a lower interest rate, etc.).
So, for the sake of argument, if an average workers salary had stayed exactly in-line with inflation, house prices could've gone up 4.2x and they would have spent about the same amount of their monthly expenses on the loan per month. Lots of caveats that make this not as true in practice though (taxes, ability to refinance in the future at a lower interest rate, etc.).
[0] https://www.macrotrends.net/2604/30-year-fixed-mortgage-rate...
[1] https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/