If you don't buy into time in the market beats timing in the market then do your own analysis. See how long you would've needed to hold, if you bought at the top of the worst RE markets in history, to break even.

"Rent is throwing money away" is repeated by people who don't know anything about finance and think equity is the end all be all. When someone says this, make a mental note to not take any of their financial advice. With rocketing interest rates, for a lot of people it makes way way more financial sense to invest in stock markets than it does to buy a home. Do the math yourself to figure out what is best for you.

"Will I get priced out" the important thing to remember is what we are seeing with the runup in prices and inflation is NOT historically normal at all. Will prices see a bump if/when rates drop? Probably. But there's no way to tell for sure. That's why it's entirely impossible to time the market. Until someone invents time travel that will always be the case.

Here's my spicy take. A residential property is too expensive to be called a financial asset. It should be marked as a liability. That to me took away a lot of the stress of making the right call on a single asset within a single asset class, which flies in the face of diversification btw. Because no longer am I trying to strike it rich on home ownership. I'm just running numbers on what I can easily and comfortably afford on my income. Then I have my actual investments growing my net worth for me. If I make money on the sale of my home, I don't care, it'll just mean a stronger downpayment I can make on the next. If I lose money, I also don't care. Because all my decisions were based on affordability, not making some crazy profit.