Should I buy a house in SF bay area right now?

[Irina Goriatcheva]

I'm a first time home buyer and finally ready to buy where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm targeting a 3+ bed home to rent out with a granny unit where I will live (or rent out a room at my parents' for that matter). The goal is to bring down my rental costs to $1000 while building equity in a property. Of course it's a sellers market and prices are quite inflated, but I have more purchasing power now that the rates are now. I'm thinking of waiting a year for the crash, but I'm worried about the inventory drying up and IR rates so high that I would now only be able to afford at most a 2 bed condo as opposed to 3+ bed home. 

Even with the craze, I'm not seeing a reason to wait for the crash. The Bay Area is affluent so I don't see the foreclosures hitting the market doing a significant dent, and even with work from home a lot of the companies would still prefer for individuals to come in as COVID settles down so I wouldn't predict a significant drop in demand and a huge influx of supply. 

So even though it's a crazy market, I'm not seeing enough reasons to wait. Are you seeing something that I may be over looking? 

(The one risk that does feel very real is that I don't know what the rental prices will do...)

[Darius Ogloza]

I like to tell the story of my friend who has been waiting to jump into the real estate market since 1987.  I have little or no faith in market timing strategies, so my advice would be to find something that pencils out and go for it.