With the recent developments in the mortgage market and studies showing that housing sales are down, now may be the time to purchase some real estate.

You may want to wait just a bit longer though. Think of real estate as if it were any other investment that you might want to make. When buying stock, for example, you want to buy it when the price is as low as possible and then sell when it is at the top.

With a home, you may not be too interested in selling at this point, but eventually you may want to do just that. Wouldn’t it be nice if you made a profit when you sold? With this in mind, the best way to maximize your profit is to buy for as low of price as possible.

Currently, as a nationwide average, it is a buyers market for real estate and supply is definitely greater than demand. This would lead many people to believe that the time is now to buy a home. However, the number of houses on the market due to foreclosures, interest only loans, and other factors is on the rise. The ones that are coming back on the market now are some of the first ones that were purchased with the interest only loans and other factors that are causing people to have to sell. This will situation will grow before it shrinks.

If you are thinking about buying some real estate, you may want to wait another 9 months or so. At this time, there will be even more homes available due to people being unable to make their payments, and other factors.

Don’t take my word for it though, do your research and see how the market looks where you are thinking about purchasing. Experts and analysts, however, are saying that on a national average, it will take until sometime in 2009 before the market starts to head in another direction and that it could take up to another 18 months for the nation’s housing market to see any signs of recovery.