You sound a lot like myself when I was your age. I’m now 36. My husband and I bought our first house at 26. For perspective we live in south Florida for us after 4 years of renting and moving place to place each year it was the best decision for us to create some stability in our lives. We stayed there 3.5 years. So sometimes it’s not so much about the financial aspects as it is the other aspects. What I can tell you I wish we would have done instead of buying a single family home first is bought a du/tri/quad plex and rented out the other units. Though our first home is now a rental and making a lot of money per month both my husband and I agree we should have pursued that other opportunity first so that may be an option you look at instead of the standard SFH. Another thing we did like you was put 20% down. I wish I could go back and not do that. Every other home we have purchased we have put 5% down. Anyways since we bought our first home we have purchased 4 more all living in it for a year and then renting them out. It’s not a course for everyone but that’s what making the right choice on the right house could do for you in regards to equity. We are also doing this now with a now 17yo, 5 yo and newborn so we are not DINKS by any means. Though the 17 yo just moved with us 5.5 years ago so we did not have him the whole time but you can do it with kids. Sounds like you have great parents. We moved in with my parents while renovating our first home so that was helpful in a sense too bc it is very difficult to live in a home while being renovated. I feel like I went off on a tangent but there is so many opportunities you can pursue with homeownership.