As I have written many times before, all real estate is local.  So, when a central New Jersey newspaper, The Courier News, ran an article on the front page (below the fold, alas) entitled "With the market down, it's the right time to buy," it appears that even the local media have gotten the word. 

A notoriously pessimistic appraiser and New Jersey market guru was quoted to the effect that five years from now people will look back and say that 2008 was the year to buy.  Interest rates (though starting to climb) were low and prices were at the bottom before they started their climb in 2009.  The New Jersey market has not suffered as much as other areas, and central New Jersey, especially Somerset County, has been spared the worst.

New Jersey has remained a relatively strong market not so much for its strong economy, some point out, but because with high population density there is not that much land to build on, and many restrictions make it difficult to do so.  Consequently, New Jersey did not experience the overbuilding during the boom of 2000-2005 that we saw in California, Nevada and Florida, areas now going through a difficult real estate market.  There is considerable pent-up demand for housing in New Jersey, and as the word appears on media front pages that prices will start to increase soon, buyers will take a deep breath and move off the sidelines, or they can wait and think five years from now - "we could've been a homeowner."