IMO, by following this site and taking in all the graphs, updates, discussions etc., you can get a fairly clear picture of where the market actually is at any given moment in time, and you can also project forward with some clarity, although not certainty. By doing this, you are already ahead of the 99% of people who merely read the news and fall for the propaganda. At some point, figures like notices of default, foreclosures, monthly price and sales declines, rent/own ratios etc. will start to look more appealing, or even flat. May also need to see signs that our current state of credit and housing imposed stress on the economy has passed. If that 700k home that is now 600k goes down to 450k and I sense the market has stabilized, I’d probably buy.