Is it time to buy?

I still think it’s too risky a time to buy a house. The real estate market won’t shoot up that fast if you mis-time it by a year!
This article is trying to suggest it may be a good time (interest rates may drop to 4.5%!!!!) but don’t miss out on those little nuggets of reality:
From It May Be Time to Think About Buying a House

buyers in 33 of the markets could see a decline by 2012, including potential six-figure drops on an average home in the New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle metropolitan areas.

Here is yet another diagram showing how the price/(yearly rent) ratio was historically stable around 15. Not the last few years. So either rents need to go up (not very likely) or house prices need to come down.

Moreover, the relationship between rent and home prices showed remarkable stability. In recent
decades, the median home price has been roughly 15 times median annual rent

Here’s a link to the original report