While I have the utmost respect for Warren Buffet, his extensive and obviously profitable investment experience, and his unique insights, no one knows everything about everything and one should not extrapolate that his vast business experience spills over into knowledge about the housing markets across the country.  

Again, to reiterate YET AGAIN, all real estate is LOCAL!  There is NO national housing market - some places in Florida, California and Nevada are falling through the floor...others (particularly in the mid-west and other places essentially away from the coasts) are doing just fine.  So unlike the stock market (which is extremely liquid and where profits or losses can occur instantaneously), the real estate markets, being illiquid, take much more time to sort out and 'stablize'.  I agree with W.B. that there is a lot of bad stuff going on in the RE markets and it is going to take some time for all of it to work itself out.  I just read today in the NYT's that the low-medium end of the Miami condo market is in the crapper - rising inventories and falling prices AND there are 8,000 condos coming on the market AND 12,000 schuduled to come on by the end of 2008!!!  I would safely say they are F***ED. 

All that being said, I DO understand, though, that both national and international economic factors do have an effect on housing markets.  With this in mind, I value W.B.'s stance. 

There was an interesting comment that I read (that I cannot recall verbatim) that goes something like this...everyone is trying to call the 'bottom' of the real estate market. When the stock market was crashing, everyone was also trying to call the bottom.  In reality, the bottom appears when NO ONE needs to 'call' the bottom - EVERYONE knows it.  What I take away from that, then, is so long as people are still trying to 'call' the bottom...we're not there yet...