[quote=ltsdd][quote=Astrid Rey]
I am married now and we are considering buying a house in Menifee or Temecula but are not sure it is a good time to buy. I thought I might ask advice here but now I am not so certain about the quality of the information. It seems that many of the smart people have lost their way.[/quote]

I have a simple checklist that I use each time I am in the market for a PRIMARY residence – Do I have a need for it and can I afford it? Price direction after I bought really not matter much because it’s only paper gain/loss. Buy a house only if you intended to live in it long-term (10+ years).[/quote]

Thank you for the advice ltsdd and others. We have decided not to purchase now because we are already renting a nice enough house and do not think there is much upside to buy and possibly even some downside.

I think that Rich’s chart tells us that that prices cannot go up much. Also there is so much new construction that will increase supply. It looks familiar to the bubble days with all the building and now I wonder, who is going to buy all of these houses? There is a huge development off Butterfield Stage road that was empty for so long but now they are building again. I wonder when the mortgage scammers will start again. I would think that people have learned their lesson but who knows?

I don’t know what will happen with the economy in general but I don’t believe that polls in the news tell us anything. When 7 in 10 people think that the economy is good what does that really say? So many people were fooled before. It seems that maybe the smart thing is to believe the opposite of the majority. And now more than ever people want to believe their side is right and do not want to look at facts. People want to see those that they do not like to be wrong, even if it costs them money.