What they picked as "starter homes" in that article aren't even starter homes! New Construction is NOT A STARTER HOME! Starter Homes are the older established homes, not something that's a few years old... If you are buying new or relatively new construction you aren't in the starter home if you are planning long term. Buy the older house now, so you can buy the Mansion later.
I will disagree with you slightly here, respectfully so, of course.
My fiance and I live in Phoenix, AZ, where we were able to secure a new construction home for about $120k. It is in South Phoenix, and, for all my fellow Arizonans out there, they know it's not the best part of town. But it's promising, and now we're looking at it's appraised value hitting $200k this year.
Here, the way the market is right now, people looking for your version of a starter home are outbid at least $10k higher than the starting price by investors who pay cash. The only option for most people is new construction because the builders don't allow investors to purchase new construction.