Bob Marley, the sub-prime issue is bound to blossom all over nation as it was everywhere form New Mexico to Alaska that risky loans and people with insufficient paperwork were being approved by unscrupulous mortgage-brokers and mortgage banks. These easy to obtain mortgages in effect raised the prices of all properties as the demand was way too high. Fast forward unto today: The whole scenario has changed. You need perfect credit these days to get any mortgage (and they check the entire A-Z paperwork required). Most people applying aren't qualifying at all. What does this mean? Lower housing prices. Why?? As we're seeing that even the peeps who wanna buy are not being approved and most of the investors who flipped thier azzez out when the maket was hot are all down and out. The demand is expected (and has) to go down a lot...Also, look for an increase in foreclosures pretty soon since most of these dum-azzez who took the ARMs or variable rate mortgages will not qualify to refinance at a better rate (no way are they gonna get any more ARMs). To refinance, its the same as taking out a new mortgage, so all the paperwork has to be processed again (and if the credit score/debt to income ratio has changed, it could be a prob).

If you plan to buy a property anyway (giving a rats azz to fundamentals), you need all the luck you can to even qualify for a decent rate on the mortgage. As per my suggestion on the earlier post, wait until the end of this year as the sub-prime fiasco still hasn't seeped through the enitre economy as yet.