Re: "So you take on debt and spend dozens of years paying off the debt,"
"That's because today most people will never earn enough money in their youth to buy a house, or at least pay most part of it."
I disagree, but that's because I did.
I saved at least 10% of my gross income each year. In part buying basic rather than flash stuff, all that boring penny pinching stuff (repair rather than replace, sandwiches).
After 12 years of this, we moved countries, and I bought a cheap* house. It was cheap becasue it hadn't had much maintenance done on it, and it was a mortgagee sale. Took me about 2000 hours and another 10 grand to get it livable.
So it's possible. It's possible now. But people don't want a first house they have to fix up. Or live in anywhere not as upmarket as their parents neighborhood. And there does seem to be a concerted effort to make sure the lowest rung on the housing ladder is above 100k...
* 3/4 bed, 1 bath, 100m^2, central heating, old double glazing in Southern Netherlands. Paid 45k in 2013
Biting the hand that feeds IT
