Its a tough decision to make especially when Government Ministers are flashing documents expecting a 5 - 10% drop or worse. If this drop was across all housing then this would make buying now difficult, but I would imagine that certain areas and house types could hold up well. Probably best to have a very close look at the current market in the area your buying and you could pick up a bargain.

Also when we bought our current house 9 years ago we knew that with a young family that we wanted the best house in the area we could afford as we intended to stay for many years. At the time future prices weren't important. Remember a market crash would only effect you if you have to sell before prices have time to recover.

I totally agree with big steve in that the media is hyping this up in a big way but unfortunately it is this hype that will crush consumer confidence in the market and will in turn cause a downward turn in property prices. I think its hard to predict just how much of a drop there will be over the coming years but id say 10% this year alone is very possible.