I'm surprised no one here has said it yet. But your friend is actually quite smart. While he and his wife are making 250K now, there is no guarantee they will be making this much in 10 years. My wife and I had pretty high student loans ... we are doing a somewhat decent job getting these paid off. Sadly, because of all the debt, our net worth is pretty low even though we are in our 30s. Unlike your friend who is lucky/smart enough to earn such a high salary in a place where a decent house costs 250K, my wife and I would need just under a million to get a decent house.

tldr. 250K isn't that much these days when you factor taxes, child care, housing costs and student loan replayments.