I live in a high rent area much like yourself and I don't necessarily agree. It's pretty affordable for couples like my wife and I- and we aren't running the risk of having to sell our house at a major loss if and when the housing market falls out due to whatever reasons.

We're saving for a house while pretty aggressively paying off our student loans... but the flexibility of renting has been great.

The issue that I have, is cost of living has been going up higher than wages

It has...I can totally agree with that my friend. I think it is slowly getting better, however.