On all the articles I read about the market, prediciting the market is usually done with a rear view mirror affect.

but in some markets like the south Bay the market is increasing from 2006 up to 14.3% as per the Daily Breeze. California Association of Realtors is predicting a 6% drop in the Los Angeles County Coastal areas but this does not necessarily mean the South Bay.

We are not seeing a drop because the Seller's that do not need to sell are holding off from placing their homes for sale and our inventory is low.  So yes, sales have slowed down but prices have gone up. I see drops in the condo/townhome market under 800K and in the homes selling under $1million. But for the majority of homes especially ocean view properties the prices are up again.  So my suggestion is buy now while the interest rates are down. This will save Buyers on a 600K loan as much as $200,000.00 over the life of the loan in 15 years. 

Jumping on the lower interest rates is where the homebuyer will save thousands of dollars. I attached this business week article on MSN this morning. Click on the link to see the Citties with the Best increasings and prices. These included Salt Lake CIty, Austin,Texas to name a fwe that where still under $300,000.00 and increasing.http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=6112643&GT1=10932

"The latest housing headlines are far from encouraging: Foreclosures are up, home prices are down

 and new-home sales are at record lows. All this dismal news has many buyers sitting on the sidelines, afraid to make a move. But, economists say, waiting for the bottom may not be the smartest strategy.

Calling the market low is a difficult task, and it's most often spotted in the rear-view mirror. For one thing, there's no agreement on when the U.S. real-estate market will officially touch bottom. If you believe the National Association of Realtors, it will happen later this year. Investment bank Merrill Lynch is much more pessimistic, predicting that U.S. home prices will drop another 15% this year and 10% in 2009, with perhaps even more depreciation in 2010.

But for many buyers, there's no real need to wait for the market as a whole to officially bottom out, says Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast at the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "Real estate is local," Conway says, and therefore what constitutes the bottom for the country is meaningless for those looking to buy and sell homes in their own neighborhoods.

Prices in many markets have not yet hit their lowest point, but they aren't that far off. And in other areas, only the pace of sales has been affected; prices have held firm or gone up.

Waiting for the absolute bottom to hit before buying puts you at risk of missing it and getting caught up in a market on the upswing. Plus, for some first-time home buyers, owning simply makes better economic sense than renting.

Downturn, what downturn?

Of course, in some parts of the country, there's no real reason to get cold feet about buying. Prices have ticked up slowly and are expected to continue that slow march for the foreseeable future. "We have not seen a downturn in our market," says Marianne Ackerman, of The Property Shop in Glenwood Springs,"

So Procrastinators, just get moving and you will be happy with your savings!!!