I live in Murrieta and although a Piggintonian, I am not as extreme as some folks on this board. Is that denial? Only my shrink knows for sure.
That said, here is what I think you should do. Ask yourself the following three questions:
1) Is this a home you really want? Does it really suit your needs?
2) Can you comfortably afford the payments? The repairs won’t take too much cash right?
3) Do you plan to stay at least ten years?
If you got three yes answers to the above, I would say go ahead and make an offer.
Here is what I am seeing in my neighborhood. For almost a year the market has been just stagnant, almost nothing selling, repos and brown lawns have been appearing. Then, last week a house near me went for sale at $399k. All the other local houses for sale are in the $400-500k range. Suddenly lots of shows and lots of realtors taking people through the house.
In other words, yes the market is taking a dive, yes it could get worse, yes nobody knows what is next, but there are some potential buyers appearing looking for “bargains” if that word even applies.