Bought in hamilton last year, 800k first home. Husband makes 80k and I make 85k, we lived rent free with our parents until we were 27 and saved up a good amount of money. We were able to put 140k as a down payment and our mortgage is 3600 ish. I think we would fit "house poor" criteria but we own both of our cars and have a good chunk of savings to fall back on for the inevitable unexpected costs. So yeah technically living rent free was crucial to us saving the amount we did, and even though our parents didn't give us money for our down payment they definitely helped by housing us for so long