Your questions are stating false comparisons. The only alternative to buying a house you listed is renting an equivalent house. But there are several other alternatives. To buy a house you must qualify on you and your spouse's/ Co buyers proven income. So even if you intend to have a roommate, you cannot included the rent they’ll pay in your income. But it’s almost trivial for two couples (4 incomes) to rent a house together. There are also apartments, or trailer parks, or living with parents.

But let’s get back to equivalent homes.

A young couple makes 80k/yr and wants to buy a 250k house. They can’t afford much of a down payment and finance 225k. They’re paying roughly 2500/mo in a mortgage tax and insurance. That’s roughly half their take home income.

Older couple makes 160k/yr and just sold their previous home walking away with about 100k in equity. They also add 25k more for the down payment and finance 125k. Now their mortgage is 1200/ mo and they make more money so that represents a far lower percentage of their take home income as well. Even if they still only made 80k the fact they were already in a home with equity still leaves them with far more spending money each month.

The young couple is going to be in an apartment, or a trailer, they’re never getting into that home, even as a rental, unless the owners bought it during a low market and have a low mortgage and are not trying to get “today’s market rates” for it.

I didn't downvote you.

Many homes are being sold very fast, and very competitively. You need to be pre-approved AND have a down payment before the target house is even listed. If you don't put enough down, you have mortgage insurance which makes the monthly payment go up quite a bit.

Some very competitive places homes are being bought for cash, then often remortgaged to free up the cash you put in, but, you have to have it in the first place.

many buyers are telling their broker/agent "If a house comes up in xyz neighborhood, and it has these basic criteria, get my bid in sight unseen". It's going that fast. Your normal work a day, save your pennies home buyer doesn't stand a chance.

This doesn't even touch on investment firms doing this at an enterprise scale.

Mortgage interest rates are very high at the moment, and many people "feel" like that's never going to change, but it very likely will, significantly increasing what they'll be able to afford. Home prices in my city have been falling for a couple years since they went out of control bonkers during the pandemic, and I don't think they've hit bottom yet.

Point is, these things are typically cyclical and temporary

Va loan helps to make it favourable but also you need to consider that investors can structure it better than first time home buyer. Sometimes it aont about out running the bear just the next guy

I have the same question. It seems like a doable goal for me, and I only have an Associates Degree. Are people just bad at saving and paying their bills on time?