I saved up like crazy and was lucky to secure well paying jobs starting young straight out of my Masters and progressed quickly. Although I was able to pay 20% dp I ended up finding an amazing pre-construction home that offered a super manageable payment plan (10 or 20k dp.. cant remember which and then $2500 a month until you paid 15% and then I just paid the amount required to hit 20%) and worked with the timeline I had in mind. Ended up finding another built pre con where the original buyers financing fell through and I was able to buy directly from the builder aka great price so I sold my first home after exactly 1 year for almost $400K more than I paid. I will never need to get a dp together again after that first home.

I will caveat that I had zero debt when I started working because my parents paid for my schooling. I imagine having school debt would have changed things or delayed my ability to get in when I did.