I did exactly the same thing almost a year ago. I bought a normal sale and paid a price that was reasonable at that particular moment – a price I knew would not hold up over even 6 months or a year.

Like you I kept waiting for prices to correct more, but it just wasn’t happening.

I was hitting the SS and REO’s hard trying to find a deal. There were very few deals out there, and you had to be able to wait out the crazy SS process or deal with the idiot banks as they asked stupidly high prices and then let a property sit for months while it didn’t sell. I saw two properties that I had been actively pursuing, and then finally gave up on when I bought my current home, eventually go for prices that where below what I had offered. It’s just insane.

The whole thing seems broken to me. Now I’m in the same boat was other home owners in hoping prices don’t dip too much more in the next few years.