As the housing market continues to look doom and gloom you really need to think about whether everything you hear from in the media has a direct impact in your area or not.  In a lot of the metro cities where foreclosures are at an all time high the media might be painting a pretty good picture of what to expect.  While on the other hand there are a lot of smaller towns that never experienced the sudden and unexplainable increase in home values or a huge growth of newly constructed homes that were built in speculation to sell. These areas really have to take a lot of what they hear on the media with a grain of salt. They didn't have extreme growth when everything else is growing so much so they don't have the sudden and large decrease in values that these same areas face as well. While the value of homes might be down slightly the these areas will usually hold their own in rough times.  Consider where you are wanting to buy as to how much you should listen from the media.