It can be done. Just do exactly what our parents did back then to get that house. Get married at thirty or forty after saving as much money as possible. Get only one car, one tv and leave the rest alone just like my parents did.
No second car, DVD players, plasma tv, game consoles, digital cameras, or hobbies.
Use your two week annual vacation to paint the house and give thanks before every meal there is food on the table.
Bingo
You just described my early married years. almost
I married at 19, managed to buy a duplex, lived in one side. The rent on the other half paid the mortgage, leaving me with a small second mortgage payment every month.
Each side must have been about 600sq. ft. tops.
( my side had a large semi-enclosed room/porch, aka ‘Fla room’).
Today a couple demands 3000+ sq. ft., his and her SUVs, plasma TV, etc.
In my area there is mile after mile, development after development of those homes. Practically no modest homes at all.
Builders comply with demand.
I contend it’s the old argument of ‘chicken v. egg’.
Working wives increase buying power, the market responds.