20% down payment isn't a myth; if you don't put 20% down (and don't have some special situation like a VA loan) you have to pay for private mortgage insurance which can be hundreds per month, as you're buying the lender insurance against the possibility of you defaulting on your loan.

Even with PMI I am still paying less than living in the same apartment year over year.

Commute in from a small investment home/condo to let equity + appreciation get you into the home you want a few years down the road. Even in my starter, I got twice the sqft for the same monthly as my not-very-close apt.

I make the equivalent of 100k USD in a tier 2 city in Scotland (a single income that is, not a couple combined). It's not outlandish for senior roles across much of the UK (with "normal" companies, not FAANG).

100k is attainable even in the middle of nowhere in the USA, but you'd probably be better off working remotely for someone for 120k+

Looking at https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p... (the "Married-Couple Families" section), the first data set ("All Races"), the numbers I see for median household income, by age, are:

25-29: $76.5k 30-34: $92k

30-34 is stretching the definitions of a "young couple", of course. I'd love numbers for 20-25, but this data set lumps in 15-24 all together, though the set of married couples under 20 is presumably pretty small.

$76k is still not $100k, of course.