The data was very interesting, but there wasn't anything meaningful mentioned that came out of the data, other than possibly where you should look to move to if you have flexibility.

I personally bought a house in my early twenties. At the time it was roughly 2.5x my income. I've been there a few years and went through some changes to my employment, I now earn more making it easier. Over the course of ownership, in the ~20 years, I'll have paid close to $400k between the principal and interest.

If I made more, it wouldn't change the amount I pay toward my house so it wouldn't make me own the house faster. While I could send additional payments, the amount of interest I'd avoid would not be worth it.

If I had $20k available to me right now and sent it entirely to my house it'd save around $12k in interest over 15 years. Had I invested that $20k now and received only a 5% growth, over 15 years that would have earned $22k in compound earnings leaving me with $42k of potentially easily liquidatable assets.

Buying a house that is close to your annual income doesn't make you own the house faster, it just makes it easier for you to afford.

I think the guidance most people should take away is to avoid buying a house that you cannot pay off in 10-15 years. A house at $250k at a 3.5% interest rate would cost you $72k in interest on a 15-year mortgage or $154k in interest on a 30-year mortgage. At that point, it is worth sending additional payments (especially early on in the mortgage) to save on interest. This is pretty popular advice, to not overshoot for a house you cannot afford. The best reason is that you can still move later on. Buying a house you'll live in the rest of your life might be a good goal (@Clubber) but it doesn't happen for most of us. Instead, buy a house you can actually make a dent toward ownership in, so if you want to sell it in 10-15 years you'll do so with potential profit.

You don't need to sell your house for a profit (although we all would love to). Had you rented like @magic_beans wants you to, you might have lost 100% of that money and every year your rental price may go up, you might not be allowed to have pets, you can't make improvements you want; you can lose a lot of control with renting. If you buy an affordable house though, in 10 years you might sell it and if you get back even 50% of the total cost of ownership you still walk away better than someone who rented. If you got a house you could pay off in 10 years, you might walk away with a lot of cash and some profit (especially if the house's value went up).

You then have the choice to use the cash from your home sale as a down payment for your next house, which would allow you to afford a slightly more expensive house while still paying it off in 10 years. Imagine you buy a house now for $250k, pay it off 15 years (that might cost you around $2.5k/month). You sell it in 10 years, you could then buy a house for $500k and only mortgage another $250k. Or you could buy a reasonably priced home in the middle, allowing you to start investing your money elsewhere, pay off the house sooner, etc.

My plan, my suggestion: Buy a house when you're in your 20s that is affordable. By the time you're married, have kids that need their own rooms, and are looking to settle down a bit more you'll be able to sell that first house and afford that house you need. It's worked out so far.