I think many of us did the same thing.
In 1964, we bought a home for $23,500. We had around $4K for a down payment and would have needed a loan of about $20K. We lived on his paycheck while mine went into a savings account.
But this home had a VA assumable mortgage of $15,000 at 4 1/2% that we wanted to take advantage of. We were $5K short but my grandparents came to our aid and loaned us the $5K.
This was the average 3 bdrm, one bath ranch home, with a family room with fireplace.
Our PITI was around $110 a month and we both worked full time. Five years later we sold it for $26,000 and bought a new home for $35K.
Homes in that neighborhood sell in the $200-250k average and they are 50-60 yrs. old. The neighborhood today is mostly African-American.
Today many young people are dealing with student loans making it impossible to save making it very difficult for them to buy homes. Also, rents in many areas are insane forcing people to live paycheck to paycheck.
