Is Warren Buffett Right About Residential Real Estate?

He's affectionately known as the Oracle of Omaha. So when billionaire investor Warren Buffett dropped a few choice words about the real estate market into his annual letter to shareholders in his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc., beleaguered homeowners across the nation did a little happy dance.

The reason was simple: Warren Buffett predicted that the protracted real estate slump would end some time in 2011. "Within a year or so, residential housing problems should largely behind us," he wrote on February 27 in his letter. "Prices will remain far below 'bubble' levels, of course, but for every seller or lender hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits."