I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. By the time I went to college in the mid-90s, my family (mostly grandpa) had managed to amass $20,000 in my college savings brokerage account.
I got good grades (3.6 high school GPA) and drew equivalent 4 year scholarship offers at two universities, the State U and a locally respected private college. I went to the State U because it would allow me to graduate without debt. In fact, I managed to pay for living expenses and books throughout college on part-time work and leave the $20k untouched.
Three years out of college and aged 23, I spent the $20k as the vast majority of my house down payment. My friends were stunned. I believe this is the outcome you're hoping for, OP. It took a lot of the right decisions on my part: good grades, cheap college, low spending during college, working PT during college, avoiding debt, and choosing to continue to live in a LCOL area.
In hindsight, it was all suboptimal. I exactly followed the advice of my baby boomer parents and their peers to "buy as much house as you can afford" because it always goes up in value and also so you "don't have to upgrade later". So there I was, the only person living in a ten year old 3BR/2BA 1600sf house in the suburbs. Worse, I lost the flexibility to pursue better jobs across geography at that critical time when my earnings trajectory was just getting started. Even worse, I could have bought Amazon.com for $20/share with the $5,000 I spent tiling the bathroom or the $5,000 I spent on HVAC, or the $5,000 I spent on exterior repairs (NEVER buy a 10 year old builder's grade house). At least the mortgage was cheaper than renting a 2BR apartment.
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What will the next generation think of all this? We can't say for sure. They'll make their own decisions just as I made mine. Several friends of mine went to expensive colleges and left with debts many times higher than my $20k trust fund. Others goofed off in high school and went without the benefit of scholarships. Others bought a single new car - enough to destroy my entire trust fund. There are so many right choices that have to be made in a row. My college savings gave me the flexibility to do lots of things, and I did some things right, others not so well.
Last, I wonder why big HCOL cities still exist at all. Hundreds of millions of people driving cars from their overpriced building to someone else's overpriced building to work on the internet at that location. Find the inefficiency there. Then tell me what 20 years from now looks like.