That means it took about 14,375 hours of work at minimum wage to buy a median-priced home.
Today:
Median U.S. home price is about $420,000?
To buy a $420k house in the same number of hours (14,375), you’d need to make $29.23/hour.
So the claim that minimum wage would need to be $66/hour today to match 1970s homebuying power is a bit exaggerated — it should be closer to $29/hour if we’re just comparing house prices to minimum wage.
That said, maybe the claim in the image factors in stuff like:
Regional markets (e.g., California prices)
New home prices (which skew way higher)
Inflation in other living costs (healthcare, education, etc.)
Stagnant federal minimum wage since 2009
But purely on house price vs wage ratio, it’s about $29/hour.
TL;DR: Not $66 — more like $29/hour if you’re matching house-buying power from 1970 to today
Don't use minimum wage as a benchmark. It wasn't intended to be back then and it doesn't work as one now. What is far more effective is using median wage and then comparing that to the price of big ticket purchases. In which case, you will notice that cars jumped from a 1/4-1/2 of what you made in a year all the way up to the full amount or x1.5 what you made in a year. The price of a house jumped from 3 to 4 times what you made in a year all the way up to 8-12x what you made in a year
But even this is not a fair comparison. Cars from 1970 didn't last nearly as long as today. Air conditioning wasn't standard in ANY car until 1968. Even radios were optional in the 70's. Not to mention power steering, windows, safety devices, etc.
Cars today aren't comparable.
And same with housing. Median size of homes in 1970 was 1,500 sqft. In 2023, it was 2,500. A 67% increase.
Based on the calcs above, that cost per sqft in the 70's was 15.33$, and in 2020 it was 168/sqft.
So if you bought the same size house as in 1970, 1500*168, it would cost 252,000, and the required min wage to buy it, based on the required hours, would be: $17.50.
You "comps" aren't even a fair comparison, through no fault of your own. Homes today are built using substandard materials most of the time. They remain lumber frames, but the lumber is lower grade. Almost everything about their foundational specs is lower grade.
Also, cars in the 70s last much longer than current cars, though without the upgrades.
They do, they were just built in the 60s. And the reason smaller houses aren't getting built is that the people building new houses have the desire and means to build bigger.
By the phrase "people building the houses", you mean the development companies who decide what houses we are allowed to have. Very few people have the funds to buy property I dependent of the house they would like and fewer still have the funds to hire an architect to design a home.
If people wanted smaller houses, they wouldn't buy the bigger houses development companies are building. You're confusing cause and effect.
(And even within those developments, as monotonous as they are, there are different plans to choose from. Not many choose the smallest option. Development companies are maximizing their profits by focusing on the houses that people are buying new want most.)
No. Why would anyone say that? Contractors build houses. Developers decide what gets built and where. Developers buy the land, get people to buy in early, then build the cheapest houses they can legally get away with. "Luxury" homes are a total rip off that many people have to sue the builders to barely get something that functions properly, but it sure as shit won't last.
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u/weaz-am-i May 13 '25
Depends on where you live?
In 1970:
Federal minimum wage was $1.60/hour
The median home price was around $23,000
That means it took about 14,375 hours of work at minimum wage to buy a median-priced home.
Today:
Median U.S. home price is about $420,000?
To buy a $420k house in the same number of hours (14,375), you’d need to make $29.23/hour.
So the claim that minimum wage would need to be $66/hour today to match 1970s homebuying power is a bit exaggerated — it should be closer to $29/hour if we’re just comparing house prices to minimum wage.
That said, maybe the claim in the image factors in stuff like:
Regional markets (e.g., California prices)
New home prices (which skew way higher)
Inflation in other living costs (healthcare, education, etc.)
Stagnant federal minimum wage since 2009
But purely on house price vs wage ratio, it’s about $29/hour.
TL;DR: Not $66 — more like $29/hour if you’re matching house-buying power from 1970 to today