6 Good Reasons to Buy a Home Now

1. Prices have nearly hit bottom.

In most areas, most of the excess has finally been wrung out of the market. But if you're buying a first home or looking to trade up, there's no need to rush. Although prices may fall some more -- blame foreclosures still working their way through the system and tighter credit -- they won't fall by much. Fiserv Case-Shiller, which tracks home prices, forecasts that the median price nationwide will ratchet down for about six more months, then stay flat for three or four years.

In most of the cities where home values experienced a double dip after the expiration of the homebuyer's tax credit in mid-2010, median prices won't fall below their 2009 or 2010 lows, says David Stiff, Fiserv's chief economist. These metropolitan areas include San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego and Washington, D.C. But in areas with a lingering oversupply of homes for sale, Fiserv forecasts a decline of 10 percent or more in the median home price (for the year ending March 31, 2012). These metropolitan areas include Riverside–San Bernardino, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Miami.