He knows better than his elders the uncertainties of salaried men, young men with a way to make in the unstable conditions of to-day.
The effect of this well-meant advice is not to hasten his marriage, but to put it off because he is not allowed to take the course he feels safest.
Or if he is willing, the parents of his prospective bride are not, and so young people do not marry on $1000 a year, for fear of the elder generation and their supposed wisdom.
The young people are not justified by present-day conditions in owning a house on an income of $2000 a year _unless_ (1) They have money to put into it which it will not cripple them for life to lose; (2) They care so much for the idea of ownership that they are willing to take the risk of losing one half the investment should they be compelled to move; (3) They possess the fortitude to give it up at the call of duty after all they have lavished on it; (4) They care enough for the real education and the real fun they will get out of it to save in other ways what the running and repairs will cost _over and above the amount estimated_.

This saving will be largely by doing many things with their own hands.
To be bound hand and foot either by unsalable real estate or by sentiment is an uncomfortable condition for the young family who may find itself in uncongenial surroundings, in an unhealthful situation, or who may need to retrench temporarily.
Another serious objection to building and owning a house in the first years of married life is the chance that the house will be too large or too small, or the railroad station will be moved, or the trolley line will be run under the garden window, or a smoking chimney will fill the library with soot (although the latter will not be permitted in the real twentieth-century town).
A new element has come into the question of ownership by the family of limited means which did not meet the elder generation of house-owners.

In the past the repairs were confined to a coat of paint now and then, new shingles, an added hen-house, or a bay window.

The well might have to be deepened, but little expense was put into or onto the house for fifty years.

The married son or daughter might add a wing, but the main house once built was never disturbed.