Is a single-family house in the Stuttgart metropolitan area still affordable?

Call it what you want but it is legally allowed. By the way, these people often keep a good amount of money for themselves with which one can pay for a nursing home for a long time. Depending on which level you enter a nursing home, the co-payments are not as high as always feared. My grandmother had to enter a nursing home here in the spa town with the highest care level. She received a widow's pension at A7 level, and the pension easily covered the co-payment because the subsidies are now (in my opinion) very high. Many people for whom the state completely covers the costs also did not have any significant assets beforehand. So you should not view this more negatively than it is. If it should come to that with you someday and you have money left over, you can consider whether you would rather give it to your own children or pay for a nursing home with it. Everyone can, may, and should decide that for themselves – how you personally feel about it is irrelevant.

Your faulty reasoning is as follows: As income increases, so do the demands. The best example is the available income as a trainee or student. Most get by with 800 euros net. After finishing the training or studies, you earn more, and for the first time, the demands increase and more money is spent on consumption and partly also on insurance and retirement provision.

That could very well be one of my faulty reasonings...
Personally, apart from travel and now housing, I don't spend a single euro on myself more than I did as a student. I also have NO desire to drive a Mercedes GLS; I don't even know what it looks like.
Instead, it is important to me to be able to cover the education of my children.

Our parents call that a loan, and for fun, we also pay interest. But it's probably more about not disadvantaging the siblings who haven't started building yet.
If my parents choose a fancy, super-expensive nursing home that they would like to move into or suddenly only want to travel the world, they get every euro back.
That would not be a problem for our financing.

I personally would never have asked my parents/grandparents for money - no matter what for. My husband and I are proud to have worked hard for a nice six-figure equity ourselves.

Through our income and very frugal lifestyle, we have also built up more equity than most here. We can stand perfectly on our own feet. Still, I simply accept gifts that the other gladly wants to give and can give without problems.
If I gave my parents a fully automatic coffee machine, they would be angry that I spent so much money on such a superfluous thing. If I gave them a vacation, they would be put in the uncomfortable position of feeling obliged to do something they don’t want at all.
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True. The decisive factor is the 10 years.

But is this really common practice among people in their mid-fifties nowadays? Not an issue in my family.
But I also don't get the feeling that it's an issue among acquaintances. Mid-50s is the new 40. Nobody thinks about needing care yet.

In my circle of friends, quite a lot of money flows from the 10-year motive. However, this is more about circumventing inheritance tax than possible care costs.

One should definitely keep the care case in mind.
However, a nursing home costs around €3,000 per month. My parents’ pension/retirement benefits are higher for both of them, and there is also long-term care insurance. So Father State is hopefully the very last one who will ever have to pay for my parents or me...

That's true. The decisive factor is the 10 years.

But is that really common practice among people in their mid-fifties by now? Not a topic in my family.
But I also don't have the feeling that it's a topic among acquaintances. Mid-50s is the new 40. Nobody thinks about needing care yet.

No, I don't know anyone whose parents have done that. You must not forget that the parents then give up all flexibility. I don't think it's good to accept something like that. And 60 years old is not an age nowadays.

Well. Basically, I understand you, Ybias. But who likes to give money away to the state? Especially when it comes to nursing care, it’s really intense. Money disappears in the blink of an eye that you’ve been saving for months before. With that way of thinking, you shouldn’t even file an income tax return and claim work-related expenses there. But of course, you’re right in the overall context. This leads to wealthy families cleverly setting their money aside, making themselves look poor, and then falling into the social safety net. This in turn leads to tighter social funds. Which in turn will eventually lead to stricter maintenance rules. And that often hits the wrong people. From my point of view, the aspect that children’s assets are only looked at if their annual income exceeds 100k is questionable. The family can be sitting on huge treasures of gold or the like, but the individual children only have an annual income of 99k. And then nothing gets touched.

How about taking out an additional nursing care insurance that covers all costs in the worst case? Oops, that costs money. Then better live off the state / have yourself cared for so that the children can live in a nice house. "I am an alien, GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!"

My grandmother is actually in need of care. The co-payment now amounts to 1600€/month. It started two years ago at 1100€. That's how price increases are. The average co-payment currently is 2000€. If both my parents were affected, they would no longer be able to afford the co-payment. The pension is not enough and they would have to use up their savings. The account balance then decreases rapidly.

My grandmother is actually in need of care. The co-payment has now risen to €1600/month. It started two years ago at €1100. That’s how price increases are. The average co-payment is currently around €2000. If both of my parents are affected, they will no longer be able to afford the co-payment. Their pension is not enough, and they would have to use up their savings. That’s when the balance drops rapidly.

And where exactly is the problem now if the balance decreases and the savings are used up? Privatize profits (passing them on within the family) and have the public bear losses like nursing care costs? Great attitude. The state is supposed to cover all risks and costs so that one can remain comfortable and be as pampered as possible. You read this attitude more and more often in this forum when it comes to VAT refunds on houses not yet completed or child-building subsidies for houses for which neither plans nor a construction company exist. I can’t stop shaking my head...

Above it was written that the need for care is a calculable risk that can be insured against. It’s not mandatory but can make sense if you want to preserve your capital later.