Owning a home at 26 wasn’t unusual in the 80s. It is now. The average age of a first time homebuyer in that time has slipped by nearly a decade.

Obvious selection bias… me and most of my peers had homes, spouses (though not necessarily married), and decent cars by our late 20s or early 30s (in the early 00s). Various white collar careers outside DC. It often did take two incomes to make it work, where my parents generation was largely single income.

It feels like that’s less common now.

I bet owning a home was also an actual priority back in the 80s. In fact I bet back in the 80s priorities were fewer and most people focused. Nowadays there are infinite priorities and "must haves" - many of which are way more accessible than saving 50%+ of your income towards a single purchase.