Real estate has little to do with this.

Our peers in other countries can live with dirt floors, no climate control or running water, and tarp roofing. And they have no problem having kids. Until they get the smartphone (which is now starting to happen).

People have always had far less and had more children. The wealth you have now is a modern phenomenon and perhaps a bit of a flukish bubble.

Your own dopamine blindfold is a "minimum acceptable happiness threshold". It's distancing you from your underlying biology.

You don't have to live where you do. You don't have to send your kids to an expensive school. You don't have to buy expensive things, the latest fashion, the nicest car. You don't have to go to the expensive trips and festivals and restaurants. You don't have to keep up with the neighbors. You need very few things.

The dopamine loop put you there. Consumption, comparison, craving more. Algorithmically targeted.