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Well I live in San Diego and moved here in late 2005 and buying a house upon moving would have been a disaster. So basically it’s all local.

With the foreclosures, NODs, NOTs and REOs that are out there, I almost feel like I’d still be a sucker to buy so I am sitting it out. At some point the banks will be forced by regulators to start unloading homes. My best guess, which ticks off the wife is to hold off buying until 2009.

Well I live in San Diego and moved here in late 2005 and buying a house
upon moving would have been a disaster.

Back around 2002 or 2003 (approx.), I remember hearing Bob Brinker taking
a call from someone in the San Diego area (on Brinker's "MoneyTalk"
radio show).

The caller said that she and her spouse were living in a tent on
the edge of San Diego, along with a small tent village of people
bidding on lots that were soon coming available.

Fast-forward to about a month ago on ABC "NightLine". And there's
a Prudential real-estate guy guiding an ABC reporter around neighborhoods
in San Diego, pointing out recently foreclosed properties by
say, "...uh, yeah, in this neighborhood, we have a properties
there, there, down there, over there,..."

I'm no real estate agent/expert...
but I lived as a poor renter in West LA from 1995-2005.
And I my naive guess is you are doing well to wait a while before
buying...even if your better half has a contrary opinion.

BUT, remember, like the stock market, no one can REALLY "time"
a market.
Accept that you won't be able to buy at the bottom or sell at the top.
(Even Baron Rothschild said that was a law he had to obey!)
And I remember near my departure, there was an article in the
LA Times that charted local home prices in areas of LA over the past
decade or so.

I do grit my teeth, having seen that if I had beg, borrowed,
and stolen a down-payment from relatives, I could have picked up
a home in one area along the coast in Orange County for about $165,000
in 1995.

By 2005 (or so), it had tripled in value.

Well I live in San Diego and moved here in late 2005 and buying a house upon moving would have been a disaster. So basically it’s all local.

That is for sure. And there are some great deals on new, never-lived-in four-bedroom homes. I see ads for as low as $1100 a month. And still not takers.

Now should be the time to buy, though, wouldn't you say and get out of rent?