In Chicago in 1933 a 4 bdrm apartment was listed for $35/month. [2]
So basically, rent was eating half your salary even then. But then again, you had a 4 bdrm apartment and not a closet.
Probably would've been tough to buy a house on that though.
And of course, there is this:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/place/article/Problems-H...
“the two great problems it ignored before — housing and traffic.”, Herb Caen, 1948
Some things never change.
[1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/41815102 [2] https://blog.rentconfident.com/2635/classified-history-housi...