No, that was never the norm. I'm amazed at the extent to which people are looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses. There were certainly groups of people in particular places that were able to start quickly, but the norm was young couples sharing a single old beater and just squeaking into a house in their late 20s.

This is really like people looking back on the 2020s and saying "It was normal back that to make $250k out of college."