[784caroline]

IN N Va I have been reading it will not get any better until mid 2009 at the earliest. Even that prediction does not mean price increases.....most likely it means stabilization of prices and not reductions. Since the fall of 2006 prices home prices (400-500K range) have dropped about 21% but there are still many houses available who cannot sell even with a 21% price reduction. There is simply put alot of inventory out there either foreclosures or people that need to move and cant. Once things start to stabilize in fall 2009 and into 2010, you then will have the people who rented instead of selling and NOW have to sell for tax purposes ie need to live in your principal residence 2 out of the last 5 years for no capital gain tax. This will result in another increase in the number of properties available for sale which would not be good for price appreciation. In fact the people who NEED to sell because of tax reasons could actually bring the market price back down because of the "time" issue an these properties may be harder to sell since they are now occupied by tennants!
My prediciton is that it is not going to be the hey-days in real estate (2004-2005) for a number of years to come.