The thing is, if I get a house, I'll be able to start a small home business, so my income will go up, and could even go up by a lot if it takes off. This would be in addition to my current employment.
If this is truly the case*, it might make good investment sense to buy a home. However, why must you specifically own a home to start your business?
*Perhaps you might even be able to deduct some of the home expense from taxes as a business expense.
I am in Canada, but you can start a home business in a rental (subject to landlord, but office based home businesses without public access are never a problem).
The bonus is that you can deduct a lot more $$ if you rent your place and have a home-based business (located in a dedicated room), than if you own your place.
Why? Because there are limits on how much of your housing costs you can deduct, depending on the home -use. If it is rented, then the whole rent is used. If you own, only the interest and then not even for some types of employment (commissions, versus professional services, versus work from home epxenses, etc).
I believe that the US tax rules are similar, but someone else needs to verify this.
My two cents -- get a long lease on a little house that you like, with landlord approvals, start your home based business.