33, no debt. Invest in first house or continue to rent and invest for compound interest?

Hey everyone, first of all I’m grateful for this community and resource. Long time reader, first time poster.

I’m 33, no debt, no dependents, and recently started a new job making $130k base (with additional equity). I rent and comfortably live on around $3,000 to $4,000 (on the higher end) a month. I have around $80k in savings. I love budgeting (it’s fun and fascinating).

For the first time I am reasonably looking at the possibility of buying a house, even though the current market seems to be around $600k in Austin, TX. If my mortgage were around $4,000/month, I could continue to live on/around the $3,000/month lifestyle (which is pretty comfortable for me). After the down payment I would have around $10k in savings. My career trajectory seems solid at this point, and I expect to earn more in the coming years, which would buffer these expenses and savings.

I love home projects (and maintenance), and always do them anyway even at the places I rent. I think I would really appreciate and enjoy owning property. To explore, I reached out to my local bank and was prequalified for a 30yr conventional loan for $650k at 3% interest. My credit score was 807-820.

All this being said, $600k seems like a staggering amount of debt. I could also not buy a house, continue to rent and keep expenses low, save more, invest in the stock market, index funds, retirement, etc. and build a larger investment portfolio.

I feel as though I am at a cross roads in my financial life, and curious to hear any thoughts from others who have navigated this, and what their goals were/are? Thanks for reading!