Buy That House! What Are You Waiting For?

For the past few years, the question on every homebuyer's lips has been: Are we at the bottom of the real estate market? Allow me to propose an answer: It doesn't matter.

First of all, if the motive for your inquiry is financial, the smarter question to ask is whether we are at the bottom of the interest rate ladder. A house selling for less next year may still cost you more if interest rates are higher a year from now -- and all indications are that they will be.

But the larger question that buyers should be asking themselves is one put most articulately by Inman columnist Tara Nicholle-Nelson, who asks: Why do you align your real estate purchases with the market and not your life?