Just found this thread after reading your other one. It's definitely a dilemma, but I think you're in a relatively strong position. The million dollar price point may not be as great as you think, unless you want to move to a less expensive area.
Buying here is NOT fun. It feels like a stupid life choice, even if your reasons for owning are sound. To "succeed" buyers typically make huge life decisions in as little as one day, waive all contingencies, pay for numerous pre-inspections and sewer scopes, and do fast closings. Then again, I was scraping the bottom just trying to get a decent starter home in our walkable neighborhood.
Getting some more skin in the game might help your decision process. Keep going to open houses, tour houses regularly with your agent, get a detailed run-down of what a "competitive" offer is here, practice trying to decide if you want to buy a house within 1 day of seeing it. Ha, you could even pay for a few pre-inspections and make a half-hearted offer that gets rejected - that will get your blood boiling! We went through a few cycles of offering, rejection, backing away, getting our rent jacked, wishing we could leave Seattle, etc. My husband landed a professorship at the UW, something definitely not to be thrown away, so we decided to stay in Seattle. We kept looking, tried another offer, felt like giving up again, but then got unexpectedly lucky. [I reviewed my reasons for buying in another thread: our rent skyrocketed, we intend to stay for 7, 10, or 20 years, desire to own a home, and need stability to sustain my neighborhood-based home business]
There's not really a smooth way to buy in Seattle right now, but if your life is here, patience, frugality, financial preparation, and stubbornness can go a long way. Give yourself lots of time!