I set foot in San Diego in 1993 in the 25-34 year age bracket with 20K in student loan debt and 10K in credit card debt. At that time unemployment as about 8% and home prices only went down.
I am pretty sure the homeownership rate for my demographic had decreased and was probably at a 10-year low.
These were negative factors, but not necessarily indicative of whether it was a good time to purchase real estate or not. We ended up buying a house in 1996 and it turned out fine (actually better than fine).
By definition these types of indicators are typically at their worst in the bottom of a cycle.
