The housing market is really crazy now, due to the crazy people that made it that way. The questions are, 1. are you buying to invest or 2. are you buying to have a place to call your own. To invest, then now would be a crazy time, so maybe you jump right in with the other crazy people. Really though, not a good time to invest. As for a place to live, you buy whenever you are ready really. Of course, if you are one of those nuts (I call them nuts) that will be wanting to tap equity soon in the form of a HEL, now may not be a good time, since the home price will most likely drop. It is almost impossible to time the right percentage of value drop. I would buy when I felt the cost of the home, using a conventional loan, was well within my budget. And I felt I was getting something worth the money. It sounds like on the West coast, you don’t really get much bang for your bucks right now. I’m on the East coast and eight years ago we bought a 2800 square foot ranch style (walk out basement) on five acres for $155K. I consider that acceptable bang for the buck. Of course, we aren’t paying that premium for the weather. It’s a bit hot and muggy around here right now. But, hey, you get used to where you live. I can deal with a couple months of humidity. Variety is the spice of life. The heat and humidity hasn’t stopped me from riding my road bicycle any.
