Five years is a sound floor, and if you can comfortably carry the payment, time is the biggest lever you have. Nobody can promise what any specific five-year stretch looks like. Unless you significantly overpaid, you are most likely sitting somewhere near what you paid, since broad, deep price declines are rare in most markets. Some markets do see real softening (rising inventory, offers stalling out), so your local picture matters more than the national one. For context on how time tends to work in a homeowner's favor: even after the 2008 crash, the worst housing downturn on record, most markets recovered to their prior peak within about ten years, some in five or six, others in seven or eight. On the milder end, the Southern California downturn tied to the late-1980s savings-and-loan era ran roughly a 10 to 12 percent decline and took about three to four years to fully recover. None of that guarantees your market or your timeline. It is why we point people toward a five, seven, or ten year hold instead of a two or three year flip, especially with a low down payment, where the cushion is thinner. If you are not forced to sell into a soft window, holding on and making the payment has historically been the recovery plan.