Is “Affordable Housing” an oxymoron in many of today’s big cities? Let’s look at improving the chances by thinking creatively. To buy a more affordable home, one might have to consider compromises/alternates like: moving away from the city centre; buying a smaller, older, or fixer-upper home. Maybe contribute some of your own time/labour to scout materials and/or partly design/build if you have or can develop the necessary skills.
You probably get the flavour of some options. I am never saying the road to home ownership is fast & simple for the majority of us. Just to consider opening the mind to other ways.
One of the more affordable options might be: shipping container homes. Because these containers might speed the process & lower the cost by replacing the wooden framing stage. Either a new or a used container, & they come in various sizes. They also open the door to enlarging the home by adding further containers to the overall home later (as a second floor, and/or by creating a larger ground floor footprint). Containers are versatile; I have seen designs for berm homes, & even a floating home.
One must first check the local zoning rules & building permit possibilities; acceptance strides have been made here in some areas (or consider building further outside city limits if zoning is more flexible there). The more people who ask about acceptance for alternate homes, the more likely & faster this may grow. Perhaps you even have companies working with this type of housing nearby.
To see some great examples, one can try internet searching for photos using search terms such as “innovative modern container homes”, “city designs for container homes”, or “beautiful designs for container homes”. You might get inspired. And there are other forms of alternate housing.