I agree about the difficulty of buying at the bottom. I spoke to that when a few people said they’d buy if prices dropped a certain percentage. It’s hard, from our current perspective, to understand how things will be then. All the talk will be, “it’s not like last time. Prices will not recover like they did before. The outsourcing of our jobs will render future increases in income meager at best. The damage to our economy from years of budget and trade defecits will take decades to recover from. China and other Asian nations have stopped funding our spending spree (buying our debt) and interest rates are going to keep rising. Unemployment and underemployment are so high that few can afford a house.” The list will go on. The prevailing wisdom will be that buying real estate is pure tomfoolery. And when things start to get better, it will take a long time for the herd to catch up. They’ll still be going with the prevailing wisdom. Just like they did on the way up. Just like they did with Bush. Just like humans do in countless other endeavors. Going against that takes courage. Going against that and doing it at the right time takes courage and smart research.
