Let's not forget that interest rates were not just relatively lower, they were actually really low just a few years ago. They have gone up since but I agree they still aren't high, especially compared to what my parents got from the banks when they financed their house.

A lot of my family are builders, and when you talk to them, the old adage "they don't make them any more how they used to" is said with a "thank goodness" attached to them. In other words: they build quality has also continually gone up since the last generation built their homes and that explains a part of the increase in cost (of course, there are other factors).

I do agree with your notion that there have been a number of big improvements in the QoL. That said, though, a house is certainly the main expenditure most people ever do in their lifetime. In other words, if the one item that's orders of magnitudes more expensive that most everything else you'll ever buy in your life, the effect of that price increase is especially painful - and especially hard to compensate through savings in other places.

> wouldn't you rather go live on a beach in Costa Rica for a few years?

I personally wouldn't but, and I wonder if most people would love the idea of doing that but when it comes to actually pulling through would chose not to?!

That said, I was lucky enough to live parts of my life on three different continents of this planet - while for my parents, when they were my age, international travel was still something exotic and very expensive.

Australia?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67723760

Maybe it's a thing with British colonies...