Yeah, I probably used too harsh of a term there -- It's not stupidity or laziness, but more ignorance. You can't exactly chase something that you haven't been taught about.

And you're right, the process is daunting - many of the people that argue against it are those that have to live in the city, and refuse to live further out in order to get better pricing. I've got plenty of housing around me being built in the 200k-300k range (2/1 and 3/2) - in Florida no less. But it's in the country.

I went the "buy a slum house and live in squalor, putting whatever extra money I have into it to fix things" route. I learned a lot about housing maintenance; installing your own appliances, replacing well pumps and tanks, electrical, etc.

A buddy of mine is shacking up with his brother and they're buying a house together for now so that in 10 years they can sell it an split the equity for their own individual houses.

It's all possible, though for sure - you may have to do some things that we'd consider unconventional today. It's definitely not ideal. The big guys are going to find out sooner or later that not paying people for jobs ends up with nobody having any money to spend.