The Cost of Living — Then and Now

These days we’re all complaining about how much it costs to live. From gas prices to grocery prices to healthcare and on, we are all scratching our heads about how expensive it is getting to live where, and how, we live.

For Generation X (born from 1965 to 1980) or Generation Y (born 1981 to 1996) it’s much more expensive to live today than it was for their parents in 1990. The average yearly household income in 1990 was $29,943. Adjusted for inflation, that figure today would be $78,764. The median household income these days is $83,730.

Thirty years later it is barely more than the inflation adjusted $78,764.

That leads to comparison of the cost of the lifestyle of parents in the 1990s to their kids living today.

Housing in the 1990s. The U.S. Census Bureau said the average cost of owning a house per month in 1990 was $736. In 2024 that figure ballooned to $2,035. That’s almost triple what it was in 1990.

Renting is also shocking. Rent in 1990 ran an average of $209 a month. The 2024 average figure is $1,487. That’s seven fold more than 1990. And it’s just an average. In many cities rent averages top the $1,487 but $1,000 or more.

Childcare is another huge change. In 1990 it cost $49 a week to care for a kid under age 15. In 2024 some 23% of U.S. households had kids under the age of 13. They’re spending somewhere around $10,520 a year for that childcare.

The cost per week is $202.31.

The cost of owning an automobile saw an unbelievable increase between 1990 and 2024. Kelly Blue Book said for payments, gas or diesel and insurance, it cost an average of $4,954 per year to drive in 1990. The 2024 figure was $12,296. That’s an increase of 148% in 30 years.

And that’s two years ago. With gas prices and inflation hitting consumers hard, those figures will be even higher. Gasoline is the main reason. In 1990 the average price of a gallon of gas was $1.26. The national average today is $4.48 and in states like California and Washington, with the two highest per gallon prices in the country, that number is a dollar or more higher.

Grocery prices are lots higher, too. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said the cost of a dozen eggs in 1990 hit $1.22. In May of this year they were $2.19. White bread was 89 cents in 1990 and today a loaf runs $1.83.

The increase is 165%.

Entertainment is light years more expensive, too, for the kids raised in the late 1980s to the 1990s when compared to what it cost their parents to have a good time. The Washington Post said a movie ticket in 1990 ran $4.75. Today the average is $11.50 if you have MoviePass.

It’s even more if you don’t.

Going to a concert. A New York Times analysis found major acts cost $25 to $50 per ticket. Billboard said the average in 2025 hit $127.17. Some concert premium seats can hit high three figures to low four figures.

That’s why a lot of us say home for our entertainment these days. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said basic cable hit an average of $18.84 per month in 1990. That was basic cable and not all that many channels.

Premium channels were higher and not figured into the 1990 average.

Consumer Reports noted the 2025 cost of cable TV or satellite TV averages over $100 a month. These days more and more people are streaming rather than doing cable or satellite. It is less expensive but not significantly so.

Add in Netflix, Prime, Apple TV, Peacock, Paramount and Paramount + and cah-ching, cah-ching, the price of home entertainment rises to way over $100 to close to $200 per month.

Travel by airplane in 1990 averaged $134 per one-way ticket. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said in May of 2026 a ticket price averaged $307.31. Staying in a hotel or motel on that trip ran $56 per night per person in 1990. The figure today is $179 per night.

A trip to Disney World for an adult in 1990 was a measly $31 in 1990. Spectrum News said a one-day pass from age 10 and up starts at $119 in 2026. That’s an increase of four-times the 1990 price.

And we didn’t dig into the outrageous cost of healthcare, health insurance and insurance in general. Nor did we address clothing, the cost of college, taxes, fees and more.

The bottom-line here is the kids of parents in the 1990s cannot come close to affording to live as their parents did back then.

Source link: MoneyLion — https://bit.ly/3WBILuV