<prompt> Human: ive read reports about housing prices being ridiculously high right now and it being a bubble again, so Id like to wait until the next housing crash and get a good home on the cheap. is this a viable strategy? obviously there is no way to know when it will happen, so I told the wife if it doesnt happen in 10 years, well give in and just buy then.  <response>: The problem is that a house might cost 300k right now, raise to 500k, then crash down to 350k, and youre worse off than if you had just bought at 300k. The cycle of prices going up, then experiencing some sort of correction that pulls values down for a while, then rising again is a well known thing. But the period of that cycle is completely unknowable, because its dependent on so many factors. If you want a house then buy now, with 20 down. 