How long do you plan to wait before buying?

[EastSider]

[Alan]

[meshugy]

[EastSider]

[Ex-Izzy]

[AwaySooner]

[small_far_ugly]

Wow, I think it's really hard to ascribe a timetable to it since none of us know what's going to happen. I havea hard time saying I'm going to do it in X years. I'm going to keep an eye on the median home prices and interest rates. If either one ticks upward with any consistency, maybe I make a move.

Interest rates are the most interesting to me, because it does no good to wait out a number of years for the price to go down (and nobody's sure it will) but interest rates jump back up to let's say 7%. You've gained nothing.

I'm watching both, and if they are both in a holding pattern, I don't buy. I'll buy when one of those metrics goes down significantly, or it becomes obvious that they won't. But I don't see any harm in waiting, and if I really do get PRICED OUT FOREVER I'll move to Denver.

Buying in the immediate future is a bad decision IMO, because the reason to 'buy now!' is long gone. The big gains have been had and spent. It's the rough equivalent of coming up with a snappy comeback a day after you needed it.

[biliruben]

I'm going to watch San Diego. As soon as they start coming off the bottom, I'll buy up. They seem to be about 6 months to a year a head of us in their cycle.

[Puget Sounder]

I'm not worried about being "priced out forever" because my career doesn't tie me to Seattle. I could easily find a job in the Twin Cities (native midwesterner, Wisconsin by birth. I can handle negative degrees fahrenheit), Austin, TX (don't mind the humidity -- Wisconsin has similar), Denver, CO (like the skiing & the cheap home prices), or Portland (most of Seattle's amenities at 20-40% less -- and Oregon salaries are pretty decent even with state income tax).

[EastSider]

[Lake Hills Renter]