@snervel Super late to the party here, sorry.
I don’t see that anyone has mentioned your retirement account. You’re oversaving in your 401K.
You want to first max it out to get your employers benefit (as you said, 3%) and then use the rest (5%) into a Roth IRA, which you can contribute up to $6000 per year.
As someone who bought a house right out of college, housing has only increased since and rates have increased as well. We couldn’t afford even 2/3rds of what we did if we waiting like people said, and we bought in 2022!
I feel like a lot of people have FOMO and are eager to buy houses, but can’t because rates are too high. Once rates start dropping, we’re gonna see prices increase again. So, around 2 years I’d say.
I know many people who have bought a house without being married. There’s just extra paperwork, denote how much you put in exactly, and it’ll be fine. You don’t need to be married to purchase a house together:
However, I do suggest making sure you’ll live in the house for 3 years before leaving. 1 year minimum, but 3 ideally.