Buy If I Can Afford It? Or Would I be Trying to Time the Market if not?

[Hac T.]

I have enough money saved up to put 20% down on the average home where I live in San Diego. I am currently living with parents so it'd be nice to purchase a home and move out. Ideally, I would rent out all the other rooms while living in one to reduce mortgage expenses. I would be happy as long as I am not paying more than the comparable rents for where ever I may be living, or maybe just a little more. My brother is a homeowner who purchased his forever home around 2010 so he has been able to reap the benefits of appreciation. He suggested however that maybe I should consider renting for a year or so because home prices are so expensive and rates are also so high. I understand he also isn't a Real Estate Investor so I'm not sure if i should just take his suggestion with a grain of salt. Would his suggestion generally be speculating that the housing market is due for a price correction and can be very well wrong? If for any reason I were not able to find tenants I could still afford to pay the entire mortgage using my 1099 income but I would just have to be more frugal with my expenses which I wouldn't mind doing. Should I just take the plunge and jump in to the market now since I could actually afford to? The ultimate worse case scenario would obviously be if i purchased a home then the housing market crashes and I lose hundreds of thousands in equity value in a short period of time? Not likely?