Upcoming college graduate advice

As a bit of background, I will be graduating May 2023 with an engineering degree and have already accepted a job offer for roughly $67k a year. I’m starting to look into moving out of my parents house and am just looking for any housing/financial advice. I’m leaning more towards buying instead of renting and would be ok with a fixer upper as I have experience in much of the work that would need to be done. Houses in my area are currently going for $150k-200k and average rent is around $1200-1600 a month. With $17,000 in savings, does buying a house at this stage in life make sense? What would be a reasonable price range for me to look at? I’ve also considered buying a house near the college I attended with hopes of renting it out to students in a few years after I move out. Advice on this?