Housing prices that have gone up dramatically, interest rates that have gone up dramatically, many others that matter to people and apparently not to economists.
The chart ends in 2021 and shows a nontrivial increase that year. Real wages are up since the pandemic, with significantly higher growth at the 25th percentile of household income. You can see the data for 2022 here: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.nr0.htm.
The cost to purchase a house using a mortgage is indeed way up, but surely it is worse to focus on this specific metric rather than the general basket of goods.
Personal income after tax from 2019 to 2021 went up from $27,700 to $28,800 or about 4%. I won't call that trivial but I would hardly call that inline with the increase in costs we've seen. I don't see more direct data after that for salary but after tax household income was down in 2022:
I think the cost of housing is probably the most important thing to look at since, for most people, it is the highest monthly bill. I think all of the various cost increases that make existing harder are important to look at though.
