Budget 600-800k with approx. 10k net household income?

I think she means the substance value.

Michaelshoven is not located directly on the Rhine, but apparently the district has a lot of greenery to offer. The settlement of the area is so wonderfully sparse and green that if you make an effort, you can find the house on aerial images. If you want a more predestined location, then the price is justified. The price is made by the location, location, location of the property! Plus the stamp of the architect bungalow, which certainly has its exclusive charm and well-maintained values inside. Energetically, you can definitely gain a lot if you simply insulate the roof first. Two Cologne residents with good income, a realistic attitude, and a good eye and hand will find an appealing home here for one million!

Certainly, it does not remotely meet the needs of a family father who doesn’t care about design or zeitgeist, yet: if I were a Cologne resident and had your salary, something like this would actually be mine!

So what? That’s the market! This also happens in every department store, supermarket, and boutique: put the slow seller next to the bestseller - eventually, both are sold. Also the price issue: if something is offered too cheaply, it is examined more critically because something must be wrong with it or it’s considered junk.
Even at my annual flea market, I can see that brand labels and no-names do well alongside each other and advertise each other. And since I don’t want too much competing stuff on the wallpaper table, some items that aren’t handled that often go back into the box at first to be taken out again later. That’s how you sell!
And the real junk is offered differently anyway, e.g., through an auction.

If you go into the search with such an attitude and after, say, a year or two still do not understand it, instead complain and see yourself as a victim, honestly, it’s your own fault with your attitude if you find nothing:
Who constantly compares portals just for the numbers and sits in front of the PC saying "Man, man, man, they’re crazy with these prices," will neither recognize the values nor find a house with this approach. Because the mindset is against it.

What about the new end-of-row/semi-detached house in Sürth? As already said, I am not from Cologne, but Sürth is located on the Rhine… the house then 6 minutes bike ride from the riverbank.
I guess you will find something with every property that stops you from buying, in the end, the price will always be too expensive for you.

What I find a bit sad and was already readable in the opening post: You don’t even know how much your salary and your savings are worth. Rarely have I seen these numbers as salary. And such salaries are hardly found here either - certainly there are such jobs with us (Airbus, Hamburg Business, Daimler), but very few. And these employers are currently also exchanging expensive staff for cheaper ones. But those who have good salaries also live generously in our commuter belt according to their income because they can afford it.

But somehow, a good salary is sometimes like casting pearls before swine. You can do nothing with the money except save for old age and complain now. You can basically not handle money if you look at it closely.
I do not know either whether one always has to wait until the pain threshold before something happens.

I do this regularly, also to keep an eye on the value of my parents' house. Although there is hardly any vacancy here, many houses are first rented out because and if they are not sold.

And yes, the value of my parents’ house (built in 1978) is not measured by the market value but by the other houses in the neighborhood and buying behavior on the market. Certainly, my parents’ house has almost double the value in design, quality, size, and land than the bungalow with half as much living space and equipment 10 years older, but on the market, you won’t be able to sell it for twice the price.

Man, this is getting almost philosophical here. Thank you very much for the interesting contribution.

Yes. Now make something of it, instead of spending the evenings with a tool that scours all real estate portals of the republic for supposedly too high prices...