I'm guessing those lower income folks either don't live in HCOL locations or were fortunate enough to buy their homes before the pandemic. My family is all in HCOL, so with a young kid it's not really feasible to move away (or to go back in time and get a better deal on the house).

Yes, to some extent the asinine expenses of people like me are a result of various choices we made, but that's assuming those choices had any really realistic alternative at the time. And now I'm stuck.