I’m with Perry, keep your cash at the ready and when you rent, read your lease and make sure you can get out of it without too much in penalties in case the right house comes along. It is too hard to pick a month or a year and say that will be the bottom for a specific area but 2010 is as good a guess as any however 2008 or 2009 might see some interesting events. The problem with what you want is that you have picked one of the most desirable areas (not just in the county but the country if not the world) and you won’t be the only one hunting for bargains. The premium areas aren’t immune but they tend to dip last and will have more support at lower levels, your window of time of to act will be short. Go to zillow and find properties that you like that sold in 2003 and that will be close to what you can expect in 2009. Even if everything goes to hell, there will still be people with money and that is where they will want to live.
