I’ve said it before as many others here, but you don’t have to hit the absolute bottom. In the end, a house is a place to live and unlike a stock or bond, you have to live somewhere. Buying a place and being able to move on with your life and spend all the extra time not spent searching for a home is wonderful!
I’d just worry less about overpaying and focus on things like how long you plan to stay there? What’s the mortgage compared to renting a comparable property? I think after the tax deduction, the numbers probably aren’t as bad as people make it out to be, especially where you’re looking.
It’s probably harder to actually find a place you’d want to live in.