I'm emphasizing the closeness to public transportation because it is going to play a huge role moving forward especially due to the increase in traffic congestion.

However, there are so many things you can do on the expense side that a median US income is sufficient to save enough money for your first property in a few short years.Your biggest expenses are housing, transportation and food. 

The two largest expenses of the American household are housing costs and transportation.

Imagine picking up the moving expense from California to NYC with vehicle transport costs too. 

All of the public transportation infrastructure is there, the dirt is there, but the city wants to maintain parking lots and light industrial / one story commercial here

Private transportation and airlines will get impacted.

Do lots of searching and find a decent deal on a car that you’ll be content with and will allow you put money into real estate instead of transportation.

I live a pretty minimalist lifestyle and don't require a lot of things outside of the essentials of food, transportation, and shelter.

When you start you need to look at every expense (housing, transportation & taxes are the big ones) as dollars that could be invested into real estate, earning you more dollars. 

Any sort of bills - food, living expenses, medical, insurance, transportation etc will eat that up instantly.