[Jimbo232]

I've posted my thoughts on the rent/buy decision in some of the other recent "Should I buy a home" threads, but I wanted to make an additional observation.

Assuming most people are taking out a mortgage for a significant portion of their home - if you are tying to time the housing market by waiting X amount of months to purchase, by the same reasoning shouldn't you be taking into account potential interest rate changes and the effects on your housing costs? If we are going to try to time one market that the experts can't even figure out, why not try to time them all?

If you save $20,000 on a $400K home (5% decline) by waiting 12 months, but in that time the going rate on a mortgage increases by 1% (from 6.5% to 7.5%) the increase in monthly payments will eat away the costs savings in less than 7 years of payments. While we are in a time of historically high housing prices, we are also in a time of historically low interest rates. Just something else to think about if we are recommending trying to time markets.

I believe if OP feels the #'s from a buy/rent analysis show it is prudent for him to buy, and his lifestyle preferences making owning desirable; then by all means if you can find a good deal now there is no need to wait. Buying a primary residence should not be purely a numbers game - the biggest factors should be the OP's lifestyle preferences.