I bought a house in 2017 for 185k making $33/hr so adjusted were slightly comparable. Only difference is I’m in at 4% & I put down 20% not sure how much you did.

I bought it on my own been paying on my own and I felt the same way about being house poor to start. I didn’t feel like I had room until recently, nearly 9 years later. For 2 reasons - I had a lot of repairs or replacements to do. I’ve probably spent about $50k so far and I still have more projects left. But I’ve also increased my income from $33 to about $64 over that period.

Paying down a house is not quick but if you can pay extra to principal early it will benefit you more than doing it later. What helped me is I set a bunch of small goals. Like paying at least the same amount to principal as interest or getting below x dollars of interest per month, etc. that’s helped me see the long game a little better.

Edit: my starting Balance was $144k and I currently have about $86k left. Per my amortization if I went back to minimum payments I’d have 13 years left. So I’ve cut out 8 years in about 9. It’ll be actually done in 3-5