Timing is everything! Being a prophet 5 years ahead of the event is not very useful as almost everything experiences cyclical variations. If you sold in 2003 because contrarians talked you into the market bursting, you’ve had lost a lot of appreciation. Now everyone is calling for the bottom. Ok, so you buy within 15% of the bottom plus or minus….but what’s more important is when is it going to start rising again? Ask yourself what it will take to cause real estate to start appreciating again??? So we may bottom in 2009 or 1010, how long will we stay there?