high rate is not smart financially, you will end up burning a larger amount of money on interest. Rates are currently in restrictive territory, so wisdom would assume rates will eventually lower but that could be a while given how stubborn inflation has been.

The delta between the cost to buy and the cost to rent has never been higher, which is another data point suggesting it is a horrible time to buy. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/buying-vs-renting-house-in-america/

You have what most of Gen Z are drooling over, throwing that away to chase a higher cost of living doesn't make any sense to me. How many more years do you want to be working? Trading a low interest mortgage for a bigger, higher interest mortgage would set most folk's retirement age back 5-10 years.

Going into it with the thinking you'll just refinance later isn't a great strategy either, there is a cost to refinance and it's typically 1%.