The time to buy an asset is when it is just starting to appreciate. I’m not demanding here that every potential home buyer try to time the market but it is simple logic that it makes little sense to buy something today if you can buy it cheaper tomorrow. Home prices are dropping and it looks like they will continue to drop at least through 2010 and maybe even to 2012 according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Housing Futures Index traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Case-Shiller is the best indication we have of where housing prices are headed. And though the index has shortened a bit in recent months from predicting a 2013 housing market bottom, renting still looks smarter than buying until at least 2011.

[http://blog.cringelysmortgage.com/2009/01/04/it-was-the-best-of-times-it-was-the-worst-of-times/]