But again, all that is in the future. For now, the big question for people who want to buy a home is: Should they pull the trigger now or wait until they have a bigger down payment saved?
"I think you should set a goal for yourself of saving at least 20%," Marimow said. "While I don't necessarily support the regulation (to make a minimum 20% down payment) because of what it would do to the housing market, I do think it's a good benchmark of what you need to save to get a home you can really afford."
In many ways, bigger is better. If you can scrape together 20%, for example, you would be able to avoid mortgage insurance. A bigger down payment typically wins you a lower interest rate, which would make your loan cheaper.
You do risk the possibility that interest rates and home prices could rise while you're saving. It's hard to forecast the future, but those risks seem pretty small, at least in the near term.
But Quicken Loan's Walters doesn't necessarily think you should wait. He believes that if you can afford the payments and you're ready to stay put for several years to ride out any further drops in the home market, you should consider buying.
"You should buy a home when you're ready and you can afford it," Walters said. "If you're stretching, you probably shouldn't buy."
My advice? Shoot for at least a 10% down payment before you buy, plus closing costs (nationwide, those costs average $4,000 on a $200,000 loan) and enough cash to pay three months' worth of mortgage payments after closing.
Saving up that much ensures that you get plenty of experience living below your means. That's an essential skill for a homeowner, since you're about to face a startling array of potentially expensive repair and maintenance costs. Being in the habit of saving will help you pay for those.
Liz Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy" (find it on Bing). Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. Join the conversation and send in your financial questions on Liz Weston's Facebook fan page.
