1. Decrease housing prices 2. Increase wages
We haven't seen meaningful wage increases for a long time now, so perhaps it is time. Maybe this is just a symptom of wages not tracking with inflation, and the solution is to pay people more.
At this juncture, it seems most appreciation will arise from supply issues, which aren't new to the post-2008 world. And while we do have lots of unoccupied housing nationally, we don't have it stock in areas where it's most needed: e.g, job centers. You can easily find a $10k home in Detroit if you wish.
The graph would be helpful it broke out metro versus rural areas, in addition to factoring interest rates.
The solution is not to pay people more, it's to increase the supply of housing to the point that people can pay drastically less for housing. Look at China: apartment towers on every street, each 30+ floors easily. Where is that kind of density in the U.S.?
_I'm_ content with my pay now, perhaps others aren't and there is little they can do about it. How might we even define "content" for a cohort as large as "anyone buying a house"?
There's nothing to worry about.