No, it's not a spare cash problem. The modern world is full of credit.
Anyone can save a deposit given enough time, affording the monthly mortgage payments is the challenge.
There's a demographic difference, for example I'm constantly being asked by members of the prior generation why I don't own two cars and how we possibly cope. Actually I have no interested in owning any cars at all but one is necessary.
The same goes for housing - why don't you buy? Because I don't need to...
Now, we millennials do care a lot about housing but only to the extent that the previous generation has made it unaffordable.
> Anyone can save a deposit given enough time, affording the monthly mortgage payments is the challenge.
Affording monthly mortgage payments is easy. Actually having enough cash in the bank to make a down payment, and having a high enough income for a long enough period of time to convince a bank to underwrite your mortgage is the hard part.
> No, it's not a spare cash problem. The modern world is full of credit.
For people in their 30s and 40s who already have a credit history, yes. For people who turned 18 after 2008, it's dramatically harder.
After 2008, banks were terrified of providing lines of credit (such as credit cards) to people who didn't have a credit history. Since the fastest way to building a strong credit history is to have prior credit, this quickly becomes a self-perpetuating problem.
I had many friends who found it literally impossible to get a credit card as recently as 2010 or 2011, despite having high incomes, because they couldn't prove their creditworthiness.
Banks have since recovered somewhat from this fear, so it's no longer quite as difficult to get credit cards, but the same fear exists to getting a mortgage. And even before 2008, banks were always particularly hesitant to extend mortgages to young people due to the extra perceived risk.
There were a few years in London recently where (annual increase in deposit requirement) > (average annual salary); I don't think it's true that everyone can save for deposits in these kinds of conditions of house price inflation.
Isn't it more the lack of spare cash for those, especially the large deposits required for housing?
so the concept of paying $200-500/more a month for leasing an apartment isn't as cumbersome as it was for the past generation
I think you underestimate the extent to which people have looked at the mortgage costs and would love to own a house if they could afford to.