06/23/2026
In 1984 a home cost roughly 3.5 times the median income.
Today it's roughly 5 times. That ratio is the real story, even if this tweet's specific numbers are off.
I want to walk through the actual verified data here because the underlying point is completely real, but a few of the numbers in this post don't match what's actually documented.
In 1984, median household income was around $22,420 to $26,430, not $63,000 as the tweet states.
The median home price that same year was closer to $78,200 to $84,300, not $94,000. The $63,000 figure looks like it may have gotten mixed up with a different year's data.
For 2025, the median home price is closer to $410,000 to $430,000 nationally, not $514,000. Median household income is around $83,150, which is roughly in line with what the tweet says.
Here's what the corrected math actually shows.
In 1985, the price-to-income ratio sat at about 3.5. By 2025, that ratio has climbed to roughly 5. Home prices grew 408% over that stretch.
Income grew 241% over the same period. The gap between those two growth rates is the entire affordability crisis distilled into two numbers.
The two-income household point in the original tweet is worth addressing too. It's true that dual-income households have become far more common since the 1980s, but that shift has been happening gradually since the 1970s, not as a sudden 1984-to-2025 comparison.
Two incomes chasing a home that costs nearly twice as many years of income as it used to is exactly why it can feel like working harder buys less ground than it used to.
The real numbers don't need exaggeration to make the point. They're damning enough on their own.
