Looking to buy, but not pleased with what I’m seeing at my current price point. Should I be spending more?

Hello all, coming here because in need some advice from other buyers. Been a long time renter, but have settled down, in a relatively higher cost of living city in the south. I make a good amount of money, but don’t really have any role models who can give me advice so I’m coming here. My take home pay monthly is 15k, and my only monthly debt is a $1400 student loan payment 🤢. My wife does work, but will likely stop once we have kids in the next 1-2 years so I’m not including her income when considering buying a house. I’ve been using the rule of thumb that you shouldn’t spend more than 25-30%, so I split the difference at 28%, and that gave me around a 4k mortgage payment, which is around 500k home. In most places this would be more than sufficient, but honestly the homes in the area I’m looking (20-30 minutes from my job) don’t really get nice until you hit 600-650k minimum. My question is should I be spending more given my salary is above average? Or should I stick to that 25/30% rule? I don’t want to be house poor, I enjoy taking nice vacations, eating, etc, but I also don’t want to buy a home I don’t love. Any advice or insight would be appreciated.