I'll offer some anecdotal evidence, because that's all I've got. My wife and I are 30 now, and bought our first house a couple of years ago. A few years before that, we were living paycheck to paycheck in an expensive city with rapidly rising rents. We felt ourselves slowly failing to tread water, and we came up with a plan.
Step 1 was more lucrative than I would have thought. I had a guitar pedal collection, a couple of amps, some vinyl, an N64 and SNES with a decent number of games to get rid of. She had some depression glass, sewing equipment, and other crafty things. Together, we had a cast iron pan collection, homewbrewing equipment, and general appliances. On top of our meager savings, we cleared enough for a 1-way flight, a decent car, and the rent/security deposit.
Step 2 was picking the right place to live. We instantly went from $1375/mo. to $925/mo. for rent, from a 1br to a 2br apt by moving to a small Vermont town. I took a slight pay cut, but my wife had spent a very long time securing a work-from-home position at her company, so our income only went down slightly.
Step 3 was living a very restricted lifestyle. We drove less than 7,000 miles in the first year. We went out to eat only a few times. We didn't make any impulse buys, and we cut out those small, regular purchases that add up.
Step 4 was the hardest part. You really have to put in a lot of work finding your starter home. After several months of looking at homes, getting offers rejected, and seeing issues we couldn't risk to take on, we settled on a 3-br with lots of cosmetic issues for $75k. After taxes, insurance, and utilities, our monthly payments are actually less in this home than we were paying to rent. There are a number of projects we are taking on to improve the house, but none of them are terribly expensive. One of the great things about small towns like this one is you make friends with people, and it turns out they know how to help and will work for beer.
We're in step 5 right now. I got a better job recently. This is the first year I have earned more than my grad school stipend 7 years ago. There's enough money left over at the end of the month to invest. A decade from now, if the housing market conditions allow, and we have taken good care of this place, we might be in a position to upgrade to a property with a couple of acres.