The people I went to law school with are now buying $1.5 million+ houses. Even on a $500k/year salary that's insane. My wife, who grew up in a modest household, simply couldn't pull the trigger on a mortgage like that. We moved an hour outside D.C. and bought a house for 1/3 that much.
I understand close-in houses are more expensive than they used to be, but there's also been serious lifestyle inflation among middle class millenials. I grew up in a solidly middle class household; my dad had a graduate degree and a white collar job. We ate at Sizzler, sat through the timeshare pitch to get tickets at Disney, etc. We travelled internationally just three times growing up: twice to go back home to Bangladesh, and once to Paris. Today, it seems like millenials think that just because you have a white collar job you should be able to afford an international vacation every year.