Part of the issue is supply vs demand and they way both get manipulated.

In the UK, we recently had a "Help to buy" initiative, where the government fronted part of the load. The inevitable consequence was that prices rose until the outgoings were still the same. The same happens with "bank of mum and dad" loans. They also mean well, but the prices yet again go up.

I've been of the vew that the UK housing market is seriously overdue a correction, but those factors have kept it just away from a stall. For how much longer, I wonder.

There were two advantages for first-time buyers to the interest rates rocketting when I bought. Foreclosures and rising interest rates meant house prices stalled for a while, though of course that also means many people lost their momes, and high inflation meant, provided you could ride the wave, the pain went away fairly quickly ... just a few years. With low interest rates, the pain is fairly constant.

New home builders also restrict the supply a bit, which also holds prices high due to unmet demand.

My paternal grandparent bought their house, with cash, for their retirement. They'd save through their lives for it. Getting into debt with a mortgage was something working people generally didn't do back then. When I was a toddler, in the early 50s, we lived in a rented house in an inner-city "slum" area with two or three other families. As did an awful lot of people then.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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