We bought a house 3 1/2 years ago. We found out that kinda the rule of thumb was that we could get a loan for 2.5-3x gross income, but could only truly afford a loan for 2x gross income.
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but are you sure you are doing the math right? The 28% is of your gross income, not net. Keep in mind that you have to pay taxes and insurance and other fees on top of that, so what seems like a reasonable house payment can balloon quickly. Our actual house payment is around $450, but the payment we dole out to the bank each month is over $700.
There's a good reason why banks have these kinds of limits, though, so if you truly can't qualify for the price of a house, I'd say keep saving your money for a down payment. I know it's hard to wait when the interest rates are so low, though. Good luck!
-------------------- jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC