How do I decide?

Those BIG life questions seem to loom overhead. I confess (probably much too often) to being a commitment-phobe.

Wouldn't it be GREAT if I was writing about some pending man-dilemna? Haha, no such luck. Still man-free here. :)

My current commitment struggle is in buying a house.
It's been a "buyers' market" so they say.
Interest rates have been low.
But there's been no appearance of the RIGHT house.

So now the buyers' market is waning.
Interest rates are rising.
And now I find myself struggling to muster the DESIRE to house-hunt.

I know it's not unusual for first-time home buying to be a scary process, but I heard a rumor that it shouldn't be debilitating.

So how do I decide? which neighborhood? which house? which mortgage broker? what interest rate should I be able to vie for? how much house can I handle? should I even BE house hunting, right now, based on my life NOT the market trends? ? ? ? ?

(Oh, and to make all this even EASIER to process, in an attempt to give me a pep talk, my Realtor likened buying a house to getting married. Um... Hello! NOT MARRIED! Why would THAT help?)