You certainly don't need to be drowning in student loan debt to reach that. You could go to a state school and get an excellent job. That's just poor financial decision making. Where I live you could go to UVa, VT, or maybe VCU.
You also have to factor consumerism and entitlement into the issue. I make white collar money, but live in a blue collar neighborhood. This makes housing more affordable and there is no temptation for "Keeping up with the Joneses".
It's easy to finger wag at supposed entitlement and consumerism when you completely ignore all the other factors that lead someone to decide where to live and work. As the breadwinner in my family I made the decision to live closer to where I work and pay a larger share of my income towards housing so I can spend more time with my kids and less in my car. There are plenty of other considerations far beyond your cynical take that would lead a family to live in an expensive ares: schools, services, healthcare, ability/desire to drive, child care, the list goes on. It is difficult to avoid getting rankled at this kind of imperious mindset, particularly because if you actually took the time to meet any of these so called materialists you would likely find that they just want to have a nice life with their families like everyone else. Calling it consumerism or entitlement is a cheap shot, reductionist, and in most cases doesn't reflect reality.
I hear community colleges put out there as an option to move into a 4 year state school often. I can't help but think it applies to many more states than I expected initially.
A lot of states have this, but follow the plan. Don't take random CC classes, only take ones that will transfer to schools they have agreements with. I did CC for a year and they marked the classes with an * which would transfer to the closest university.
I thought it was implied by "state school" that I meant you should attend a school in your particular state. In-state tuition for UVa is half of that. Additionally it's easy VA to get guaranteed acceptance to a state school after two years of community college.
PA, for example where I went to school, was still nearly $20k/year for tuition at the flagship state schools. I know a lot of people in-state that ended up with over $100k debt.
$100k in student loans @ 4% and a 10 year pay off period. That's over $70k net pay in Philadelphia. I'd imagine you could certainly afford to buy a home after a short period of time saving for a down payment. If the dual income household is over $200k gross then it's just poor financial decision making.
