Well Done Purple (this is not the first time I've commended you on your early achievements). Purple was not alone in the general thinking back then. We bought our first house for €9175.00 (3 bed semi) - age 21. The mortgage was "made available" to us 12 months after the house was completed and we were forced by the mortgage institution (AIB) to take out a Bridging Loan from completion. Whatever way you look at this it added a year to your repayments and was a form of legal extortion used by all the banks in Ireland. I'm not going to mention interest rates rising to 19.75% where many now would not believe me, but rates like that were not unusual and I have the Home Loan summaries to prove it. I look through them occasionally and they keep me pretty well grounded.
Most people back then (70's) were married by the time they reached their 26th birthday. These days the average blushing groom and bride would be nearer 40. Purple is one of many people who bought their first property in their early 20's. Like I already said, I commend his achievement, but he was only one of many. Most of people back then left school at 17/18 and went immediately to work wherever they could find it. In my case, it was the UK where I helped make the M1 a safer place for motorists by painting the amber on crash barriers.
But, we were good people back then. You learned mainly from experience and didn't have your mind influenced to any great extent at 3rd Level. Most of us could think clearly earlier than what I think people do nowadays.
Times were different then, much different. I'm not saying they were better times because they weren't. But, people had priorities and when the first house was bought it was empty except for a bed, cooker and a few necessities. Female Civil/Public servants had to give up their jobs on marriage (think about this for a while) - try that now and there'd be a revolution. Do I want to return to those times - No Way!