At the start of a life, one should expect less-than-ideal conditions. I lived in a rooming house for the first year of my independence until I upgraded to a nice studio apartment with my first tax refund, and so on and so forth. (Interesting anecdote: a guy died in the room next to mine and I notified the owner of the stench, after which she entered the room, revealing a rotting corpse set upon by roaches.)

Maybe some of the older stay-at-home types have unrealistic expectations about independent life.