Is it possible to predict the market bottom?

I have many buyers right now that don't have the sense of urgency to buy as they once used to. I hear comments over and over stating if they miss one particular house, a better one will come along. I without reservation agree with this statement. But what is defined as a better house? From my discussions with these buyers, a better house is being defined as a home with the same or similar characteristics, but a better (lower) price. A better home used to be a home that had more features, or fit the particular family's lifestyle better.

That brings up my question of how can we be so sure that the market will continue to decline? Most areas, especially the Twin Cities and surround suburbs are still on a slide. That doesn't mean that it will continue indefinitely though. In short, and certainly in my opinion, the answer to my question is no.

Let's look at a market that we are all familiar with, the stock market. There are graphs and statistics and every other mathematical equation available that we can use the analyze the market back to it's inception. Heck, there's probably some graph available that shows the weather on any particular day and what the market did. There are many extremely smart mathematicians and statisticians that make their living analyzing what all this raw data means. However, nobody can predict the stock market with accuracy and certainty. If there were, each and every one of us would be rich. That brings me back to my point. The real estate market doesn't have all the graphs and stats available like the stock market does. There have been over time long upswings, and long downswings. Even if it did have all the trends and stats, we still wouldn't know with certainty what was going to happen next.

It's my belief that we are somewhere on the bottom curve before the valley. Of course, after the valley, or the leveling of the market, it will probably head back up. So what do buyers do? I feel that as a buyer, it is important to find a home that you like, a home that you can call home and see yourself or your family living for the next stage of your life. Don't get caught up in the details of whether or not the home is going to decline a little in value. Take your best shot at that home! What if we are in the valley of the curve, prices may be going up? You may have just missed a super opportunity. I have several buyers with the initial mentality of what I mentioned in the first paragraph get disappointed because they lost the home by a couple thousand dollars from their offer.

As with everything, consumers are driving the market, if you are aggressive, you may actually be the trend to controlling the market! You may actually be the start of home values starting to increase!