Picked myself up a crack den (not literally but might as well be) like 8 years ago. My dad built houses and taught me how to do most of the work so I bought a cheap place I knew I could eventually fix. Also in a fairly low COL area. So a shit house in a fairly cheap city in a cheaper housing market. It was either that or just accept never owning a house so I jumped on it and just barely scrape by.

My mortgage payments cost me just as much as renting a slightly nicer house in my area so the point still stands that my friend is paying nearly as much for their vehicle per month as most people here pay in rent.