Today’s Wall Street Journal highlighted that after nearly five years, middle-class earners now find that living is becoming increasingly unaffordable.

Pew Research Center defines the middle-class broadly as having a household income between about $66,000 and $200,000, depending on where you live. Perpetual sticker shock is making many within this group feel worse about both their own finances and the future of the country.

Housing, education, and medical costs have risen far faster than middle income earnings. The average price of a new home in the 1970’s was $25,500. Today, the average price of new home is $487,500. This is a staggering figure.

The harsh reality of cost-of-living issues recently pushed voters toward candidates who promised to address what many now see as an affordability crisis.

The fragility of the middle-class customer figures is a recurring theme in recent earnings of corporations. Wingstop said this month that middle-income diners have now joined lower-income diners in dialing back purchases. Target reported slumping sales with their customers spending less on discretionary items.

The University of Michigan’s consumer demand sentiment showed that 44% of middle-income respondents said that their financial situation is worse than one year ago.

Teri Korp and her husband, who have a combined income of $115,000 a year, often sit in the dark with only strings of LED lights on to save electric costs.

Inflation started to pick up in the spring of 2021 and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. Since then, savings have declined dramatically and incomes have not kept up with inflation.

In addition to the WSJ findings, here are some other dire statistics:

  • According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the median age of a first-time homeowner is a record high of 40 years old in their most recent survey from July 2024 to June 2025. In the 1970’s, it was 29 years old.
  • In 2023, a Pew Research Center analysis of government data showed that 18% of children between the ages of 25-34 live with their parents or parents-in-law. In contrast, in the 1970’s, 7% of 25–34-year-olds lived with their parents.
  • In 1969-1970, the average cost of tuition and fees at a 4-year public institution were $358/yr. The same public institution now costs $30,000 per year.

The future outlook appears to be even bleaker than the present. Today’s younger generation may face even greater headwinds. The upper middle class may be the only class to live without the financial strains that the poorer and middle classes experience.

The consistent feeling amongst my friends and I is that we grew up in America’s golden age. Almost all of us were middle class. We went to good public and private schools, attended affordable colleges/universities, and looked forward to earning more than our parents.

In conclusion, to deal with rising costs and the horrendous U.S. deficit and debt, I predict that income taxes in America, across the board, will rise to the level paid by the nations in Europe.

Originally published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune