Some in NJ, some in the San Diego area. If you're outside the ultra-urban expensive bubbles like SF and NYC, it's not hard to survive on the salary of a full-time skilled tradesman. People have a habit of increasing their spending to rise with their salary and then thinking it's not possible to live on less salary. In the suburbs and in smaller cities, mid/upper five figures with medical benefits is enough to buy a home and raise a family. The median US salary for full-time salaried workers is about $50k.

If you have decent credit and salary you can buy a home for only 5% down.

With 10-15k saved you can then buy a starter home in a smaller city or maybe outside the metropolitan area of a midsized city.