Starting to reach the despair point...

I have been looking for months, have toured over 40 places, and only found one I wanted to put an offer on. It was a fixer-upper that would have required $300-400,000 of remodeling to make actually nice, and it still went for $200,000 over list price (my offer was "only" $50,000 over list price, which was already $1.1M...).

The major problem is that the main "starter" properties in my area are condos, which can still go for $1M+. But they are horrible financial investments because of high condo fees and either zero appreciation or (more often) outright depreciation, even before adjusting for inflation.

And the actual fee simple homes (townhomes in my city) tend to be much bigger than I am looking for (1,000-1,500 sq. ft.) in all of my target areas, which are not even the most desirable.

My agent is more optimistic than I am, but I am getting increasingly frustrated and discouraged. I have really favorable mortgage terms because of my job, but at this point I'm genuinely wondering whether they will go to waste in the event I jump ship/get fired or whatever in the next year or so, which seems like a crazy time horizon for getting a house.

Anyway, self-indulgent rant over.