Wanna buy or sell your home? The housing market is not the same as the stock market. The signs to gauge market tops and bottoms are different. This New York Times article has important tips for todays hot markets, such as San Diego for one example. One important question -- is the present market near a turning point?

Though it appears the shift is now at hand, the end of the bubble will not look anything like the crash in the stock market after the technology bubble. The stock market turns frenetic when investors scramble to get out and prices fall sharply. In housing, however, a collapse is signaled by a sharp drop in activity as people hold off buying. Houses stay on the market longer. Inventories grow. Only then will prices fall, slowly. Economists say prices will lag a slowdown in the market by four to six months. Prices in overheated markets must, by definition, come back down to the mean. Knowing which way the market is headed before buying or selling is extremely important to anyone who wants to protect the wealth tied up in a house. And it certainly matters to anyone who is thinking of buying because it never makes much sense to buy at the top of the market. "The turning point is pretty important," Mr. Brown said, "because the trend will play out for years."

This article is full of tips for the real estate investor. It can be read in five minutes, and is so good, IMHO, that it substitutes for an entire book.