I am looking to buy a house. AND I'm looking for a seller who isn't living in fantasy land. If I look at one more house where the seller says "but the one down the street sold for this much last year", I'll scream.

Just looking out of curiosity. Have enough saved to pay cash, but still do not see house prices in a realistic range. Houses should be 2-3 times annual salary max. That is the ultimate bottom line. When they approach this my looking will become serious.

Anon - it would be funny if it weren't so sad. In the election year though, maybe such sellers could demand founding an agency called "The Down The Street's Last Year's Price Maintenance Agency".

January 1954,

That could happen, don't joke. It seems as if the congress is in the pockets of the NAR. God help us all.

Look at them down there trying to prop up these ridiculous prices. Shame on them all.

I'm keeping an eye on prices in the area to which I want to move. I should be ready to purchase sometime in the late spring (as in having an adequate down-payment), and don't want to have any surprises. Should someone say "this house just went on the market", I want to be in a position to say, "yeah, after not having sold for six months, then being taken off,"
if that is the case.

Also, it's fun to daydream.

Congrats, Cheap Jim -- yours is the 1,000th comment on this blog.

Alas, there's no prize. But feel free to suggest a blog topic.

I've been keeping an eye on listing status and prices in the zip codes I've been interested in for over a year now. Mostly, I'm looking for indications that this overvalued madness in home prices is on its way out. I'm similar to cheap jim.