Here is another opinion, mine, and I'm not trying to point you in any direction, just my opinion.
I would buy a property, not just anything that you can afford, but something that is affordable and something that you wouldn't mind living in for a year or two. In this case, you might have to have a sacrifice of commuting into work for that period of time. This gives you a place of your own, and you are in the market, so when you go to purchase something else, you won't be effected by the larger increases or as much if you haven't purchased a place. You might find that the commute is not that bad and then purchase a new home at todays price, probably have to wait about a year before it's done, and at that time you can decide whether to move into it and sell your existing home at that future price, or the new house at that future price and paydown your mortgage, or put towards the purchase of a home closer to downtown.
