Maybe in 2000. I don't think that's true in any major metropolitan area (say over 1 million). Which is also coincidentally where most people live.
But yeah, within the hour and a half commute zone of a metro area, you can find affordable housing.
Nope, again using the Detroit example you have Warren, Oak Park, Southfield etc literally sharing its border and within a 20-30 minute drive of anywhere in downtown Detroit or further out in ritzy Oakland county. Same goes for Arlington, Irving and several other suburbs of Dallas. I'd keep going down the list, but you get the point. Pretty much every major metro areas has housing under $200k with less than a 30-minute drive of downtown or major job centers in suburbs.
I know California is a different world, and that's fine. But the US is quite large with many large cities where you can find good careers and affordable housing. It just may not look as cool to post on Instagram...which I guess is the bigger problem.
Let's test that theory. So assuming that person in their 20's doesn't want to move to the Bay Area/Seattle/Austin/NYC they can find a nice house in a metro area within a 20-30 minute drive of plenty of medium-high paying jobs, for around $200k.
So assuming they're smart enough to put 20% down on that house, they need to save around $40k. In your 5-10 year time frame that means they need to save $4-$8k per year.
So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the generation dropping $1,200 on iPhones and having an average of 50 games in their Steam account can probably save like $5k per year if they really try.