I have heard all this before. As far as I know, there is no real evidence to support any of it. The facts are that employment remains strong, we are close to coming out of a slowdown, most economists now believe there will not be a double-dip, inflation is low and there is zero chance rates will be raised materially anytime soon. With any leveraged asset, it doesn't take much of a drop in value to cause real pain, but to date we really haven't seen any drop. Rather than trying to call a top in the real estate market and end up looking like Alan "Wrong way" Abelson, you're better off buying the biggest house you can afford in a strong market before you are priced out of it entirely.