Need home buying tips, any agents here, or anyone with buying experience? Long

We have considered that, but I don't want to move twice, at or age one move will be a challenge enough.
We also considered waiting a year, and just stop looking at houses till then. Let the market settle down. But my fear is that the perfect place will come and go while we are waiting. We've already been watching the websites for like a year, and this is the first place we've found that we like enough to make a special trip up to look at it.
If you plan to stay in it a good long time, then the current market price doesn’t matter very much. The market always goes up and down in the short run, but over time it always goes up.

If the price is something you can live with and you like what you are getting...go for it.

I have bought and sold about 6 houses over the last 35 years and the one I have now I expect to stay in until they wheel me out of it on a gurney.

Only you can decide what your priorities are, but based on what you have posted so far it seems you just need to find the right house there at the price you can live with...and ignore the rest of the noise.