Zebra: Do yourself a favor and remain a renter until this all shakes out. Real estate has a lot farther to fall, believe me. Especially in bubble markets like most of California. If you think real estate has been under pressure wait until interest rates approach 10% or higher. And I firmly believe that it will happen, probably sooner than Bernacke or Geithner would hope. That can't keep printing money to buy US Treasuries. China and Russia are already pushing for the removal of the US DOllar as the world's reserve currency. China is not going to be buying US Treasuries in the same quantities it was before. Neither are OPEC countries or Japan. And we have to roll over hundred of billions this year. Interest rates are going to skyrocket from current levels. It is absolutley inevitable. Peter Schiff likens us to a "banana republic". He is probably right. Real estate is still proced beyong the capacity of the earnings that sustain them. That hasn't changed. Unemployment has not bottomed. The stock market has not yet bottomed, although we're in the first stages of a powerful retracement rally within a secular bear market. But we'll revisit DOW 5000, perhaps lower. It's going to get uglier than any of us imagine. Being a renter makes much more sense. It provides more flexibility. If you have to relocate for work it's easier to walk away from a lease than a mortgage.
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