Low inventory by itself is no reason to sit out. It usually signals demand running ahead of supply in your area, and that imbalance tends to support prices. The honest answer on timing is personal: your financial footing, your job and life stability, and whether you're genuinely ready to own. Nobody can promise where prices go. But when listings are scarce because more buyers want in than there are homes for sale, waiting often means paying more. Run the math this way. Say prices rise a modest 3% on a $400,000 home. That's $12,000 you'd have to make up, which means saving on the order of a thousand dollars a month just to tread water, before counting the equity you'd have built paying down a mortgage. If prices instead go flat or dip, you haven't lost much by owning a home you were ready for. The downside of waiting is usually bigger than the downside of buying when you're genuinely prepared. Some of this is seasonal too. Inventory often bottoms early in the year and builds over the following months, so thin pickings aren't necessarily a red flag. Practical moves while you look: - Get fully pre-approved so you can act fast when the right home shows up. - Widen your buy box on location and property type. - Ask your agent about off-market listings, along with the active ones. The real time to worry is when you simply cannot find what you want. Short of that, keep looking, and the free Roadmap conversation, about 20 minutes, gives you your actual qualification range.