>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.
For the record, my apartment is pet friendly, you're allowed to paint the apartment, I've been allowed to change fixtures I don't like (such as replace their smart thermostat with a Nest), and there are amenities I could never afford myself (a proper private theater complete with movie theatre seats, a top quality gym, yoga studio, apartment owned cafe, etc.).
And this year want the chance to work in a new market so I'm just not renewing my lease. It took 5 minutes of filling out a form to decide I'm allowed to leave in 30 days with 0 financial burden.
As a 20-something year old I think buying a house in your 20s is a terrible idea unless you're talking very late 20s (practically 30s).
A huge investment feels like it'd be adding almost as much inertia to your life as a wife, kids, and settling down (from a financial standpoint it certainly is). It's an age at which even some people who think they have it all figured out enough to settle down don't (not that it's not an issue at other ages, but the early and mid 20s are a ripe time to do something about it when it happens), and the last thing you want to to do after you decide to make a change is to deal with a mortgage hanging over your head.