JC, I think that temeculaguy said it best on another thread. There is no reason to buy when you see prices dropping every month, even if you can comfortably afford the house.
On his example, if you had bought in Jan 2008 thinking that that the Spring 2008 bounce was about to kick in and that we had reached a bottom, you would have lost $30,000. How long does it take you to save $30,000? Couldn’t you do something better with the money? So why give it to the seller?
Oct 02, 2007 $580,000
Oct 17, 2007 $575,000
Oct 30, 2007 $565,000
Nov 05, 2007 $545,000
Nov 09, 2007 $535,000
Nov 19, 2007 $500,000
Dec 11, 2007 $450,000
Jan 02, 2008 $435,000
Jan 11, 2008 $420,000
Jan 16, 2008 $390,000
Jan 25, 2008 $380,000
Feb 25, 2008 $350,000
Watch the macro picture and don’t fixate on specific houses per se. Look at inventory, foreclosures, loan resets, unemployment, the economy, etc….
We are far from bottom. If owning give you psychological satisfaction then buy. Otherwise, buying now (foreclosure or whatever) is catching the falling knife, in my opinion.
