A recent study by crypto casino BC Game claims Generation Z in their 20s faces steeper affordability hurdles than Baby Boomers did at a similar life stage, with housing, college, cars, childcare, and weddings rising faster than pay since 1985.
Study’s topline: costs outpace wages
BC Game says wages are about 3.8 times higher today than in 1985 after analyzing multiple publicly available sources. But the study reports larger jumps for core expenses by 2025/2026:
• Median house price: $82,800 (1985) to $403,200 (2025/2026) — nearly 5x, per BC Game.
• College tuition and fees (annual): $5,556 to $39,307 — nearly 7x, per the study.
• Typical used car: $2,656 to $26,918 — about 10x, per the study.
• Childcare (annual): $1,020 to around $17,000 — about 17x, per the study.
• Wedding: roughly $7,800 to about $36,000 — about 5x, per the study.
Hours-of-labor gap the study highlights
BC Game estimates that Boomers in their 20s needed about 10,350 hours of work to buy a home, compared with roughly 13,006 hours for Gen Z — a gap of 2,656 hours. The study also estimates Gen Z’s additional hours to reach comparable milestones as:
• College: +573 hours
• Used car: +536 hours
• Childcare: +421 hours
• Wedding: +186 hours
How BC Game frames the stakes
In a statement obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, BC Game CEO Ali Muhanned said, “Gen Z and millennial women are regularly delaying parenthood, having fewer children, or not becoming parents at all. And the main reason is that they can’t afford them.” He added, “Housing, childcare, and groceries have all gotten so expensive that starting a family now looks like a financial risk,” and asserted that “last year, the share of first-time home buyers dropped to a record low of 21%.”
What the study compared
BC Game says it analyzed multiple public sources to compare financial changes since 1985. The study uses “Baby Boomers” for those born 1946–1964 and “Zoomers” (Gen Z) for those born 1997–2012.
