What others are predicting

Here are other real estate forecasts:

• Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, is perhaps predictably optimistic.

Sales will trend upward, but 2008 will be only moderately higher than 2007, Yun said in a recent forecast.

Pending home sales were up nationally when October was compared to September, but were down a bit in the Midwest. Figures were below October 2006 everywhere.

According to Yun's prediction, existing-home sales are likely to total 5.67 million this year, the fifth highest on record, increasing to 5.70 million in 2008. This contrasts with 6.48 million in 2006.

Existing-home prices should be down 1.9 percent to a median of $217,600 for all of 2007, and then rise about .3 percent to $218,300 in 2008, Yun predicted.

And it's price growth in the nation's heartland where he expects to spur the increase.

• Elizabeth Weintraub has been in some aspect of the real estate business for 30 years. She is a Realtor in Sacramento, Calif., and writes for several online sites, including about.com.

She predicts home prices will continue to fall gently, not precipitously.

Weintraub also said investors will return to the market.

• Miranda Marquit, who writes on allbusiness.com, said conventional mortgages are not difficult to obtain for borrowers with good credit who do not owe too much money.

A conventional loan is $417,000 or less.

People who want to borrow more higher amounts might need to shop around, she said

-- Deborah Donovan