Residential: The news you've been reading over the past year is either grossly overstated or just plain wrong. There has been no crash in real estate pricing and only in certain select markets has there been a bubble that has now mostly deflated. The strength of a residential market is dependent on financing rates, overall unemployment and household formation. Market downturns are caused by excess supply or the fairly rapid increase of the first two factors mentioned. Specific markets, such as luxury condominiums in Miami, Tucson and Los Angeles, experienced supply and prices which overshot their targeted market. Those are the headlines we are being bombarded with. Interest rates remain in a very affordable sweet spot of between five to six and one half percent, the unemployment rate is at a historic low of below 5 percent and normal household formation is being added to by an ever-increasing flood of immigrants as well as the growing trend of empty nesters purchasing second homes. While there are bargains in the overbuilt condo markets in some cities, there has only been a leveling out of pricing for prime residential properties in most markets (except in areas like Michigan that are dependent on the shrinking auto industry). So don't wait to make that bid thinking that prices will go much lower.