We'll be buying in the next few months. Our credit is good and we have a small down payment, so with the current environment it seems like a good time. If it weren't for the market I'd want to wait another 6-9 months, to save a bit more, but I think we will be OK as it is.

We are looking for houses with enough space to accommodate a child or two, so we aren't in a bind later on. If it stays a buyer's market for a while, I don't want to be in a "have to sell before the baby learns to crawl" position.

My husband and I just moved in to our very first home. We're so thankful that we both have excellent credit and fantastic jobs that allowed us to cash in on the market downturn. We're expecting to be in this house for the next 8-10 years so we fully expect to make a return on our investment.

We absolutely feel for the people who bought at the height of the bubble though. Hopefully they can ride out a bit longer.

I own my condo, and while I initially bought with the idea that I'd only be in it for a few years...I will probably be staying longer than I thought or at least keeping and renting.

I have made a lot of updates that would have helped increase the value, but now I'm not so sure...it's probably around the same as when I purchased.

We bought our house at the end of april. We got a good deal as it was being foreclosed on. We have done a little work to it and it should be worth more now even with the prices of houses going down. We do not plan on selling it though. It is a house we can grow into when we start a family.

We just bought our house in February and were able to snag a foreclosure that had decreased in price by over 1/3, and we locked in a very low interest rate so we're still feeling pretty good about our investment. Since the price had been lowered so much, we were able to afford a house that, as Liss said, we can "grow into" and won't want to move out of anytime soon. Maybe we'll stay there forever!

Mostly I wish I didnt have to pay condo fees.

i bought my house a few years ago when i thought that it was the best time for it - i had a great location, and a great house and thought that i'd stay in Florida forever, but now that the market has tanked, and i'm in NYC - i'm in a messy situation. i rent it, or try to rent it and with the value going down because of the market, i'm in a rut. it makes me soo frustrated and anxiety ridden.

We've been in our new place for about a month. It was a foreclosed townhome, so we got a really good deal. We saved for just over two years and were able to get a good loan. But I agree with 356UIK -- townhome fees are incredibly high because we now have to pay for those who did not. But as good as the prices are now, it's not really easy for buyers. We were in limbo for months on a house we really wanted, but lost after the banks lost our counter offer paperwork and gave it to someone offering much lower.

My husabnd & I are in the process of navigating first home-buyership. We live in SW Florida and the problem down here is, literally every single thing in our modest budget is in some stage of the foreclosure process, so we are dealing with banks and not really people anymore, and it's ridiculously hard. I know exaclty how frusterating it must have been to wait for months for a response only to have it all mishandled anyway. I feel sick for all of the people, and our friends who purchsed 2-3 years ago, and were advised to take out larger loans,with questionable & fluctuating rates.

I am still waiting for prices to drop even more. But then I live in West LA where things are ridiculously overpriced.

Sold my last house at the peak in 2005. Now we're in the process of buying a foreclosure that's listed at almost 50% of it's last sale price in '06. Hate dealing with a bank as a seller! Discovered many banks have gone to a 15% downpayment for conventional loans without absolutely excellent credit, and banks don't like dealing with FHA. Until lenders are comfortable again with 5% down on conventional loans with say scores in the upper 600s, I don't think we're going to see a reduction in housing stock in most areas.

Have all the sympathy in the world for those who've lost homes due to unemployment or medical expenses etc, but next to none for those who bought more home than they could afford with idiotic loans. I bought my first house as a teenager, and I read every single document before I'd sign it. At 25 I was offered a $500,000 mortgage without requiring proof of income OR assets, and I knew enough to tell them they were crazy and that the markets were drastically overpriced. If the median salary can't buy the median house, there is a problem- like southern California where the median household income was under $60,000/yr and the median house/condo was selling for $550,000.

I don't understand how so many adults couldn't grasp what an unadvised teenager did- If you had to bet on housing appreciating be in a safe financial situation you were doing nothing more than gambling.