Need advice: Shd I buy or just keep saving my $

If youre asking yourself whether you should buy, worrying about liquidity after and uncertainty with your job. Then perhaps you should wait and keep saving. If your rent is not much lower than what your mortgage would be then you might want to consider it some more.

we job stability is important especially if you don't have much savings left.
If you plan to stay put for at least five years and have enough emergecy fund, go for it!

Do you have 20% or more for a down payment? Will you need to furnish the apt.? Do you have several months of liquid savings to pay the mortgage + maintenance + insurance if you do lose your job? Have you had a decent vacation recently? If not, take one.

With the market going down every day, I'd keep saving and keep attending open houses (although I realize it sucks majorly having to spend Sunday after Sunday visiting potential new homes). It takes a few months to find a place and get to the closing date. Don't rush it, it is your benefit to keep saving. If you know without a shadow of a doubt that you are going to purchase an apt. in NYC, I would temporarily stop contributing to retirement accounts and instead put that money into liquid savings.

Good luck.

save -- the prices will come down and it is much cheaper to rent... including maintenance fees/taxes

mickey -- you might find the following link informative/interesting:
http://www.urbandigs.com/2008/04/timing_the_market_the_wait_see.html

Paul - great link, thank you. Thanks to all for your comments. I have some serious thinking to do and #'s to crunch.

You cannot make the decision outside the context of your longer term financial goals and life circumstances. A qualified independent investment counselor is key here. Not someone at your bank or affiliated with a particular mutual fund company. Before you spend a half million dollars or whatever you are considering, you should sit down and map out where you may be in 5, 10, 20, 30 years financially under different scenarios.

You see, this broader question has much more substance than will the micro-term NYC RE market go up or down 5% or 10% or 20% in the next 18 months. In terms of the bigger picture, this may be quite important in your planning, or it may be utterly insignificant.

Mickey- Just wait. prices's have alreaady begun to fall. It could save you alot and get you abigger place.