Buyer fees are unfortunately quite high in Germany, can be up to ~10% of the property price. Add to that the fact that houses or flats are generally more expensive than in the States, you quickly have additional costs of 50000€ or more (would be roughly the same in $) which you can not cover by the credit, but have to pay in liquid cash.
This is a major hurdle for many and a likely part of the reason why so many people live in rented apartments here instead of buying.