Gator...I agree with a lot of what has been said here. The fact is that in a lot of areas within Gainesville, the maket is driven by real estate owned properties (REO's). In those areas, appraisers may very use REO property as comps as there are very limited fair market sales.....and foreclosures therefore become the 'market'.

I think your question rather is 'When should I buy?...now or later', and the ultimate decision maker is the buyer themselves. Rather than acting on speculation and opinion, I would be more apt to act on the facts.What we know is this; There are a lot of REO properties, which is driving home values down, interest rates continue to be near a 30 yr low, driving mortgage payments down, there are tax incentives both to first time home buyers and purchasers of a primary residence that expire April 30,2010......all of that said, the time to buy a home has never been better than now!!!

Hope this helps.

This is the same real estate company and local newspaper that said Gainesville's housing bubble "wasn't likely to burst" back in 2005 - 2006. Why would you believe what they have to say about a recovery?

I don't think foreclosures or other distressed sales should be used in appraisals. This hurts neighborhood prices and does not represent true market value of the properties. I think foreclosures will continue to come onto the market and investors will continue to absorb them. The demand is there for low to mid priced homes under $200,000.

My experience is only those who are truly motivated to buy or sell can come together and make a deal. There are lots of buyers sitting on the sidelines waiting for a steal and lots of sellers waiting for the spring time or increased market activity. When people buy and sell at the same time and plan to stay in the home for a few years or longer, minor price fluctuations should not be a major concern.

Baring total economic collapse, prices should stay relatively stable into 2010.

The transaction over the last 6 months have been driven by appraised value. In the beginning of this, we were still collecting data from the higher end sales, because that is what was available. Now mixing in the lower sales, documenting appraised value is changing. We have seen an increase in activity that may initiate a stabilizatiion in the market, however it will take some time before anyone could say it has reached the floor. Finding the house that fits and making sure it is a financially secure investment is still a difficult process even with the current inventory we have here. Keeping an open mind to research the possibilities is important to reaching your housing goals.

Interesting, but from my prespective in Southwest Florida, it is the higher end luxury homes that are about to take the big hit. Jumbo loans lis pendens filing are the largest number of filings. That is our future "inventoy". In Southwest Florida low and mid priced homes have bottomed and prices have been creeping up for several months now.

It was a similar scenerio in the late 1980's and early 1990's when the higher priced homes were the last to fall - this took several years.