or, more understandable (but completely fragile), people who wanted something nicer with more space to have a family and all they could afford was something that only works with a personal conveyance to carry them to work / material needs on a daily basis.

This is a pet peeve of mine here in germany where many people claim they were forced to buy a home out in the boonies (well, what qualifies as that here anyways) due to prices but if you add up the car costs on the mortgage they totally could’ve