The news channels and newspapers are always telling us how bad the housing market is. They say it just keeps getting worse, but the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors says that the housing market is not going to get worse. Lawrence Yun, NAR's Chief Economist, states that there are many reasons for people to get into the housing market and very few reasons not to.

Whether you are an investor or just want to buy a home, Yun makes it clear that most of the fallout in prices is over, and he believes home prices will pickup in the second half of 2008. He says that subprime lending has largely "dried up," and those subprime loans are what sparked this downturn. With the lack of subprime loan originations, current foreclosures, low interest rates, and a high inventory; a perfect investing field has been created.

An ultimate buyer's market has arrived. Yun notes that Cape Coral, FL., Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, FL, and Orlando, FL., Phoenix, and Riverside, CA have had some of the largest price reductions in the country. The reason for this is that these particular cities had large numbers of subprime mortgages. The slashed prices make a great entry point for investing in real estate.

This is a lesson in value investing; the market has undervalued homes, and investors/ home buyers can make a safe investment by getting in while prices are low. It is not much different than buying an undervalued stock. If you could buy Apple (AAPL) at $115 today and you knew that in the next few years it would be at or above $200, would you buy it?

Some deals out there are even more attractive than that. In Orlando, there are $350,000-$500,000 homes that have been reduced $150,000-$200,000! Have your real estate agent find you a good deal; they have the information to tell how good of an investment a certain property may be. Prices may be picking up already in some areas, so if you try to wait it out and see if prices will fall any more, you may miss the best prices for a long, long time.