Sorry, but there is no rational excuse to purchase real estate right now. If you do you are a dumbass, bottom line. You never want to purchase an asset of that scale that is about to plunge in value. Sure, new or luxury cars are a terrible investment in terms of devaluation as well. But let's be realistic with the scale here. While buying a new $50,000 Beamer is surely wasteful, but nothing like a $500,000 house.

You missed my point. For most people, purchasesare "never" rationale.

On the flip side, I would consider a person (like an ex-coworker), who rented for the past 10+ years an equal "dumbass",

1) for throwing money away to a landlord for 10 years

2) for throwing the rest of his money away on crap because he didn't have the discipline to save…This is the problem that a lot of people will have…They don't budget for a home, then they piss away everything anyway.

Now, I wouldn't be "buying" any real estate as an investment right now. But someone that "wants" a home and "can afford" one and doesn't mind a "correction" in the forseeable future, what's the big deal?