[PanchoVilla]

I much prefer owning to renting as I think the extra freedom is worth some premium. That said there are only a few places that if I moved to right now I would not buy a home. Vegas and Phoenix are at the top of that list. They had massive runups based on speculative california buyers. I would seriously consider leasing a place for a year or two, or maybe even some type of lease-option. Do I know that the market will lose money over the next 2 years? No, but it seems far, far more likely there, than in many other places. There are many, many investor owned properties there.

The one exception I might make is if I came across a property that priced in a 8-10% decrease per year over the next two years. If you can get that sort of discount, then you might be worth considering. That is just my .02.