I think the answer is that we don’t really know at this point. If you want to go buy a place, AND you are committed to stay for at least 7 years, (7 is a guess, 3 more bad years followed by 4 years to maybe get back up… and lots of people here will refute that… guys it is just a guess!)then you will be okay…
One thing that I do believe alot of us bears kind of overlook is quality of life. Look, if you want to live in a home and have things that you just cannot get from renting, AND you are HAPPY with it, AND you will not have to leave or relocate… then yeah you can go ahead and buy. Make sure you can afford it, don’t overextend, lowball the heck out of the seller, and get the best deal you can. Then enjoy life…
Also lindi you don’t LOSE money until you sell… so as long as you are living there then you are okay.
(I am sure the forum regulars are ready to string me up for the words I just spoke) so please read on…
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Now my PERSONAL advice to you would be to try to sit tight as long as you can. I think that if you could hang for say 2 years, you may be able to buy a nice 2 bedroom in the future for the same price as a 1 bedroom today. Deep down I do believe the correction will be of a more substantial magnitude. When you look at it from a risk perspective the risk of waiting is minimal to none, while the reward for waiting is substantial (perhaps) monetarily but not in a personal quality of life way (you would still be renting which does not sound palatable to you).
Though quality of life does improve with money…
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Along the lines of rausting people who don’t read the primer or who have differing opinions and don’t present thier arguments based on facts…. I also welcome thier postings and I try to respond in a measured response. I think it takes guts to come into this forum as an optimistic poster. I fundamentally agree that all of the data seems to be pointing towards some pretty rough times ahead. I am in the same boat as alot of us… I need to buy a home and I am currently renting. Yet as much as I want the pricing to come down and come down hard, I don’t WANT the economy to crash hard or for rampant unemployment. I know the data screams otherwise and so when people come in with optimistic angles it is like shooting fish in a barrel. I think one misconception about bearish points of views is that people think we WANT bad things to happen. That we would rather have bad things happen then not and stand corrected. I do not think this is true for the majority of us.
