Exactly. I live in a 2nd tier city. My friends who are home owners have very middle class blue collar jobs. Examples include auto mechanic, security system installer, and local delivery truck driver. None of them got "help."
I just picked a metro: Baton Rouge. Median home price there is around $160k, although naturally there is plenty of inventory available for less than $100k. Some of it's in pretty dismal shape, but, looking at Zillow, there are non-zero houses in this category that look livable. The median HHI in Baton Rouge is $45k. So it would take about four years for the median family to save up enough to buy something that's at least livable, assuming they can save ten percent of their income.
I couldn't say whether blue collar people make at, above, or below the median, but it strikes me as likely that at least some of them will be able to purchase a home in this type of metro.
Not saying life is cushy in this situation by any means. And of course there will be many families that cannot save enough. But it is doable if someone wants to make it a priority.
The median full-time income is about $50,000 in the US. Emphasis that that is the median, not average.
Two household incomes is ~$85,000 or higher at median type wages (assuming a pairing of one full-time median, one lesser).
Home ownership is very much within reach at the median, so long as your income matches your market. You can't live in major US cities, earn the median, and ever hope to own a home.
So you're in the median bracket and you get your first serious, solid paying job by ~24/25. It's reasonable that if you're diligent about savings every month, you could have $45k+ by yourself at 32-36 years of age, and I'm assuming some financial setbacks along the way. With a partner, it really shouldn't be a problem by those ages. To do it before 30, you'd need a good economic pairing of two people that already are near or above $85k by 30. All assuming you're not living in an expensive market of course. With the necessary caveat: having children before 28 or 30 considerably changes the equation (unless you have a larger income in the household to offset that additional cost), as can serious health problems and associated bills (depending on your job/career situation).
Down payments are neither, unless your parents/inlaws are feeling generous.
The average savings account balance in this country is far less than 45k. You are completely out of touch if you think the average family can simply pull that out of their asses.