Do a search for homes in your area that are between 50 and 75 yrs old. These are the houses of the American dream. They are small and they are cheap. When I look in my town I see dozens that can be bought for less than 100k. We’ve got housing affordability problems to be sure. But also, a person in the 1960s living on a factory wage would have looked at a modern 3k sq ft “middle class” home and thought that the richest guy in town must live there.
Sure my grandfather raised 5 kids on a GM salary, but he did it in a 900 sq foot 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house. His house is still standing, Zillow says I could expect to pay 115k for it. The average GM line worker today would turn his nose up at it.