OPINION: Millennials and Gen Zers are unlikely to leave any extended family gathering without enduring two key criticisms.

1. The holes in your jeans make no sense. 
2. You can't create the wealth to buy a house because you're entitled and frivolous.*

* Those may not be the exact words, but they're heavily implied. 

The suggested response for #1 is to toss out a quick, "OK, Boomer". 
For #2, ask your Boomer the address of their first house, and its price. Then, look up its current value.

In 1989, my parents returned to Auckland from London, stone broke. One year later, they bought a large house in Glenfield, for $165,000, with a 10 per cent deposit. 

That same house sold last year, valued at $940,000. Presuming I could even get a mortgage with a 10 per cent deposit, I would have to have saved $94,000.  

I thought I'd hit a home run with that logic, millennials have it harder. Six times harder, to be precise. My 58-year-old dad, John Wilkes, wasn't convinced. 

"We had nothing, mate," he said. "Less of you lot are willing to make lifestyle sacrifices to get in the door." 

OK, I'll bite. What sacrifices did my parents make to get on the ladder?  And how do they stack up to the challenges facing  my generation?

In 1989, my dad's commute from Glenfield to Mt Wellington took half an hour, as there was no traffic.

Banks required 20 per cent deposits, as many do now, and Fletcher Construction was handing out mortgages for their new-builds. They allowed a 10 per cent deposit with a 12.5 per cent interest rate, which my parents took on a two-bedroom, two-storey house. 

"It had no lawns, no fence, no garage and no driveway. It was just a house on clay."

Over four years, they developed the second storey loft into two more bedrooms, "because we had a long-term view of trying to make money". 

He reckons I wouldn't put in that kind of work on my first property.

"We had a tight budget for food, we were paying off a Mitsubishi. I delivered beds for my brother's factory, $15 a piece, but the delivery could be anywhere in Auckland. Sue sold baking so we could buy plants." Sue, my mum, also handmade the curtains.

"We lived like crap," my dad said. 

That's all very well, but if my partner and I made the same sacrifices, we wouldn't be walking into our own home in a year. 

He concedes: "The house price was our combined income, times two. But a house price now isn't two times your income, it's eight or nine times your income."

At the time, my mum was taking home $45,000 a year as a PA, and my dad was on a $40,000 salary running a type-setting company. They were both 28.

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Accounting for inflation, a $45,000 salary in 1989 is equivalent to $110,000 in 2019. I don't know many personal assistants who make that.

And I highly doubt I'll be on a similar figure in five years' time when I'm 28. Working New Zealanders currently receive a median income of about $1000 a week.

Millennials have to be more educated (hello university debt), and work higher calibre jobs for less take-home pay. I don't think there's anything entitled about a generation who are working for a hell of a lot less. 

"But by the age of 21, most of us had been in the workforce for three to four years," my dad argues. "University debt hobbles you, but you also got to stay kids longer."

My biggest millennial hardship, by far, is rent. 

My parents saved their deposit renting a two-bedroom in Birkdale, for $210 (equal to $380 in 2019). Whereas I rent a room in a central Auckland house, with four flatmates, for $240 per week.

So what do I do? 

"Hope that by the time we die, we haven't spent our house on wine and pasta in Italy," he said.

OK, but, seriously?

"I still believe if you and your partner really wanted to get into a home, you could do it. We'd have to guarantor you in though, which wasn't necessary in our day. 

"You could buy in a cheap area and rent it out, while continuing to rent where you want to live." 

And I'll be paying it off for 20 years?

"More like 'til you're 65. I will say, your generation is already a lot more innovative than we ever were, because you've got to be. The amount you'll owe is what I find scary for you." 

Dad believes Boomers found saving easier, because they were raised with less.

"I still get excited about a cold beer and fish n' chips on a Friday," he said. "But even fish 'n' chips were a lot cheaper back then."

Maybe if both generations redirected the energy they spend criticising each other to helping young people into homes, we'd all be a little bit better off.