Not that I disagree with you, but when these discussions come up I always see "major city" as the baseline, as if they're the only places in the world that are worth living in.
Likewise, they always take effectively the 0th percentile wages among workers (minimum wage earners), and compare that to the 50th percentile housing units. If 0th percentile earners are expected to be renting the 50th percentile units, who exactly is going to be living in the 40th percentile and below units?
Major cities are where the problem is most obvious. The cities need low skill workers to keep running, and those workers can't afford to live anywhere near those jobs.