We did it, even through decades of lean income and self-employment!!!
1. start saving ASAP & never ever touch your stash
2. buy your forever house *if* you're the kind of family that can choose well, is handy, likes a house/garden & all the maintenance that goes with it.
3. public school & low-cost kids clubs/activities; teach kids to use transit and bikes
4. 1 or no cars, preferably indestructible and ancient
5. pay off debt (ironically this was our last step)
More on houses:
Understand that however expensive houses are, they are likely never going back down in price in a HCOL. Kind of like the stock market -- you don't get to buy in at 1960s prices. However, be very careful buying new houses in overbuilt suburbs of HCOL areas; those prices *can* drop drastically in a housing market crash. You don't have to leave, but you may want to if your neighborhood becomes a ghost town. Having said all that, I simply can't fathom paying over a million for a house, not to mention the property tax! So yeah, we're very lucky we did it a long time ago.