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Agreed. Rather that waiting, you can be aggressive and get your financing commitment in hand and then start looking. I was surprised when I was able to find what I wanted at a price that made sense. My mortgage is exactly what I was paying in rent before buying and I know I could rent it at least for what it's costing, so what's the point in waiting for the prices to go down a few more percentage points when in the meantime your throwing money away by paying rent anyway.

Also I found with new construction, developers are slow to lower prices but are willing to negotiate on "other" items such as closing costs and parking. We got our closing costs completely paid for by the seller (a 12K incentive!) as well as paying discount points on our loan (@4.25%/30yr/fixed). Good luck.

"market timing" is a fools errand. the national market has been falling for 6 years now...many have tried to "catch the bottom". but if you can hold for at least 5 years just find the place you like and pull the trigger. by the time the market stabilizes and starts to rise rates could be much higher.

according to today's news, home prices in the area declined again. if you're really interested in buying when prices have stabilized, wait until 1 or 2 periods have passed with steady or rising prices.

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Your information has mislead you. You should buy when the price is at the top.

If you're planning to leave within 5 years, do not buy, period. But if you're in it for the long haul, the benefits of owning sooner will outweigh the possibility of further price declines.

After the last bubble, even after prices stabilized, it took half a decade for them to start moving up, during which time owners realized inflation losses. So the actual bottom of the last market was 97 not 91. But buying in 91 was still a good deal if you were going to hold long term.

If you're in the market and can afford it you should probably just buy a place. The future is unknowable, maybe we're a year out, maybe 5. Maybe inflation ticks up and houses become less affordable due to interest rates.

I think we're near the bottom but if I knew what would happen with any certainty I'd have a hell of a lot more money than I do.

Hi,

I'm getting more interested in buying a condo in Downtown, but information I've gathered seems to indicate that I should wait until the price hit the bottom, which may be as far in the future as next year.

Is that the general consensus here?

Thanks,

Atsushi