I was in a similar boat, but my sister and I pooled our resources to buy a modest home (she also had decent enough credit for the loan, where I had no record). It’s not in the absolute best area, but it’s not like there are gang shootings or anything, it’s just kind of a shabby area and we had to do a bit of surface work on the house.

If you’re able to find someone you trust for the long haul to split the cost with I think that’s really the only way for a lot of us. Some areas are also just permanently no-go in terms of price though. I was “lucky” in that I live in a rust-belty city, so there were still houses for like $40k.

There’s also the other consideration of buying an unimproved plot of land somewhere and building a small/tiny house. It’s a commitment but I do think that’s unironically more feasible for people now, you can control the costs a bit more that way through planning and by getting creative with recycled materials and stuff, and the actual cost of the material and labor will spread out over the course of the year(s) it takes to build rather than being one chunk you have to get as a loan (barring the land purchase itself). The reason people build tiny houses on trailers is because it helps them avoid a lot of the building permit type stuff for a full size home.