There is also still the option of new build. It was common for popular magazines like Sunset and other regional magazines publishing in the 1930s and 1940s to

There is also still the option of new build. It was common for popular magazines like Sunset and other regional magazines publishing in the 1930s and 1940s to include basic blueprints/layouts for houses you could build yourself or have built. Cottages by today’s US standards, but perfectly fine starter homes. You need buildable land but, say, rural US doesn’t have that as a problem. One of the material advantages of staying around your hometown if you were born in those areas is you find out about land opportunities from family and friends and get steered to the right builders or they help in your build-your-own. End up house-rich, not house-poor. If we still had a culture of formal coming-of-age rites, building your own small house on a little gifted land would be a good one.