Two Worlds, One Truth About Housing
Some days I feel like I live in two worlds. In one world, I’m about a hundred years old. I grumble about technology all the time. I don’t need my fridge to text me, and I definitely don’t want my car to feel smarter than I am. Just give me simple things that work. Maybe analog really was better.
But then there’s the other world—the one where I get most of my cooking inspiration from TikTok. Somehow, that’s become my recipe box. Two worlds, coexisting.
And every now and then, those worlds collide.
When my wife and I first got married, we were able to buy a house. We were lucky. That’s the honest truth. Not because we worked harder or were more deserving than people today. We just got married in 2008, when the market was a completely different place.
But I’ll admit—there’s a part of me, the 100-year-old analog part, that likes to tell myself it wasn’t just luck. That we worked hard, saved carefully, and earned it. And it’s tempting to wrap that story up in a tidy moral and hand it down to the next generation: “I worked hard, so can you.”
Here’s the thing, though. That story doesn’t hold up. And ironically, it was TikTok of all places that made that clear.
If you spend any time on social media, you’ve probably seen videos comparing incomes then versus housing prices now. Out of curiosity, I looked up how that plays out here in Waterloo Region.
Back in 2000, the median household income was around $55,000. The average house? About $172,500. Fast forward to 2020: incomes climbed to about $92,000, but the average house in July was selling for $735,000.
Yes, incomes rose. But housing prices shot up way faster. In 2000, a house was roughly three times the median income. Now it’s eight. And that 5% down payment that used to be about $8,600? Today it’s more than $36,000.
That’s not just a shift—it’s a whole different reality. No number of extra shifts at work or cutting back on dinners out is going to bridge that gap. Analog me, the one that bought a home in another era, was wrong. What worked for me doesn’t work anymore.
And sure, you’ll hear the stories about the rare person who “makes it work” or “does it on their own.” But those are outliers, not evidence that the system works. If a median household takes home about $69,600 after taxes, where are they finding $36,000 for a down payment? After rent, groceries, insurance, transportation—and God help you if you’ve got kids—there’s no magic pile of savings sitting there waiting to be scooped into a house fund.
We like to believe the old story: that hard work and frugality lead to homeownership. For many of us, that story was true once. But times have changed.
So, the next time we vote, the next time we post, the next time we roll our eyes at “kids these days,” let’s remember: it’s not that they’re different. It’s that these days are different.
And if we keep pretending otherwise? We’re not just being nostalgic—we’re being dishonest. Worse, we’re standing in the way of fixing it.
-Philip Mills
Philip Mills, CEO Habitat Waterloo Region
