The February 25th article in Time magazine entitled "Ignore the Headlines" makes a great case for not waiting to buy, stocks or real estate.  There are many home buyers and investors waiting to buy right now because the real estate market is in a slump, they are trying to time the market just right to maximize their profits.  The only problem with that strategy is that it seldom works, especially if your buyers will need financing to complete the transaction.  Interest rates and financing costs will rise as housing sales increase, therefore trying to time the market may not pay off as well as your buyers would like.

For example,  if a buyer purchases a home today for $218,900, putting 20% down and getting a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage at 5.5%, the monthly payment would be $994.31.  However, if a buyer purchases a home in 12 months for $197,010 at an interest rate of 6% on a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage the payments will be $994.94.

Therefore, if you wait to buy, you may get the home for a lesser purchase price but your payments and financing costs will have increased so that any monies you gained in the purchase price are cancelled out by the increase in financing costs.

However, here in Scottsdale, I don't see this being a problem due to the fact that even in a down market Scottsdale and other parts of the Valley still experienced double digit appreciation in the past year.