Max well-
I don’t know you so I don’t know what generation you are.
My mother was a stay at home mom until we were all in school. My father was still in college when he started working. When they bought their first house the monthly mortgage payments were less than 25% of my fathers’ after tax salary. (It was only three years later that my father got his undergrad and started graduate school.)
Fast forward to the current generation.
Even with a PhD, I’d be lucky if only half of my salary went towards the house which is much smaller than the one I grew up in.
Expenses have risen much faster than our salaries have, not only housing but cars, health insurance, tuition, food and just about anything else. It is very hard nowadays to live off of one paycheck without external support or charity.