Too Young to Settle Down?

I just had a great conversation with a close friend of mine about the difficulties of being young and trying to start an adult life. Each of us is twenty-something and engaged or, in his case, soon to be engaged. Fortunately for us, our parents were able to pay for our college degrees, leaving us virtually debt-free after college. We both realize the significant advantage that represents over millions of other recent graduates. I'm not sure about his soon-to-be fiance, but my fiance also graduated debt-free! The collective four of us still live at home with our parents in order to save money, with some of us paying a modest board to our parents (me...). Each of us has a $40k-$60k per year career, right off the bat. So with no debt, solid incomes, and minimal expenses, why does it still seem like such a steep climb to the top of a normal adult life?! Let's chat.

My father married my mother when he was 24 and she was 22 in the mid-1980s. My father had always been a hard worker throughout high school and college, earning enough for a down payment on a fixer-upper that he flipped for a decent profit right after graduation. So by using that profit and other savings during the engagement, my parents were able to put a healthy down payment on their first home together. About a year and a half later, I was born! So they were able to make mortgage payments, typical living expenses, and new baby expenses on what even in those times was a very modest combined income, and I was a fat baby.

At this point in my life, I find myself in a not-so-different situation. I'm 23 years old and will be 24 when married next year to a woman basically the same age as me. The issue is that while we are both debt-free, we chose an aggressive college career to compete in the graduate marketplace, including a full semester in pricey Europe loaded with travel that depleted what was then our savings. It helped to secure us jobs and will pay dividends in life experiences forever, but left us at ground zero last May.

Since then we've been working full-time. However, society (and my mother) wouldn't allow us to get engaged without a nice ring, so there goes several thousand bucks. Housing prices have gone down drastically in the last few years, but all that means is that we'll be able to get more space per dollar. We still need a whole bunch of dollars! Working in the financial industry, I realize the importance of a healthy down payment, but I'm comfortable with a down payment of 15% and securing a good rate about a year from now, if possible. Between now and then, though, my fiance and I have to save upwards of $40k-$50k as the remainder of our down payment.

We'll be able to do it because of all the circumstances I described above, but what if we were like the rest of our former classmates living in Boston (or other major city) in a small, expensive apartment, not making much at a typical entry-level job, struggling with massive student loans, and going out 4 or 5 nights a week? How can the "average" college graduate plan on settling down or starting a family before 30 nowadays?! Seems like society has it out for average youngsters these days with higher standards of living coupled with higher average prices.