I don't know about Ireland, but in the US the home ownership rate is higher than it was at any point in the 20th century. So however bad the situation is it doesn't seem to actually prevent people from buying a house.
No one I knew, could afford an entire apartment to themselves!
I find it weird that people complain about not being able to rent their own entire apartment, but are in their 20s. It wasn't a thing 30 years ago!
As one advances in their career, eg in their 30s, then income tends to rise, due to experience, and better paying jobs.
San Fran is an outlier here. Literally the most expensive area on the planet, with loads of money floating around. Of course rent is crazy expensive.
In my experience growing up, everyone I knew could afford to buy a house on a single salary when 28-30, so that’s what I expect for myself.
Anything other than that is a regression.
But... that's what caused the current problem, some say. Rates too low, for a decade, causing a housing bubble. It sounds to me like what you recall, was an aberration.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong. I think the bar to home ownership should be lower. But at the same time, I think it hasn't been low, for 50+ years.
3 times annual salary seems reasonsble to me.
Did you grow up in 1958? Because that's the last time that was true.
...Or can it? The solution then is to build more housing; YIMBYism, go to local government meetings and vote for YIMBYist candidates. After all, all of the NIMBY people who bought their house decades ago are there, day after day. There really is no way around this.
> Just 47.9% of U.S. millennials owned homes in 2020, according to Apartment List analysis of census data. At age 30, millennial home ownership hit 42%, compared with 48% for Gen Xers and 51% for baby boomers.
https://archive.is/P5EKj#selection-3963.136-3971.67 - Bloomberg: Don’t Blame Avocado Toast. Here’s Why Millennials Don’t Own Homes
Maybe you have access to more recent numbers that show that the majority of millennials are homeowners?