<prompt> Human: Hey guys, so I have about 30k saved, and my parents said they would help with some money for my first house havent said an amount, just that they would help with down payment... anyway Ive been renting for the past 5 years and wanted to buy a house but the market seems really high IMO. Would you suggest renting for another year or 2 in hopes that the market will come down, or buy now? Background info. 26 married wife is a nursing student, I make around 72-75k living in Southern California. Typical rent in my area is 1300-1500 mo for an apartment. I was approved at 350,000 on a house.  <response>: Large, sustained, nationwide decreases in home value are exceedingly rare eg see FRED data. The 2008 crash, while its both recent and memorable, stands out as pretty much the sole example of a nationwide home decrease in the modern era.Thats not to say that future home value drops are impossible, but the historical record doesnt imply that such drops occur regularly or on any semi-predictable frequency. This stands in contrast to say the stock market, where declines of 20 actually happen fairly regularly every 5-10ish years on average.Interest rates are creeping up, but thats more likely to slow the appreciation or stall the appreciation of home prices than it is to kick them into depreciation. If you think a severe recession a-la 20072008 is coming then that might lead to home value declines, but betting on that is more speculation than analysis.That said, also remember that buying locks you into a particular city and even a particular neighborhood for 5-10 years. If your life or career are at a stage where youd rather have the flexibility to move around some if needed, it might be worth continuing to rent. But if youre ready to put down roots, it seems likely that prices and terms will be marginally better now than they will be in a year or two. 