I’m glad to hear that you’re leaning toward not buying. Your landlord sounds a bit desperate (despite the fact that the fax has yet to arrive). It’s a bit of a sign of things to come. In the meantime, I’d agree with the sentiment that you should save the overage over the next few years so that you have something to put down (or at least an emergency fund).
While I would agree with some about the fact that we don’t know when the bottom will come, I think that when the right time to buy does come, it will be obvious — like it was in 1996.
