Best bet is to buy in town outside weehawken where you can get new construction with covered deeded parking spot, w/d, and central air 2 bedrooms/2 bath for 1/2 the price! i live a mile away and simple to take the bus, or take my car to hoboken whenever i need to go there. My place is for sale if interested..moving to the suburbs! my place is at 4401 park ave in union city..check out realtor.com

Yes it is Hoboken, downtown jersey city, weehawken yes I think it is or NYC if you can afford it cnn.com just released an article that the NYC market continues to appreaciate and so does the surrounding areas the last areas to bottom out if that would happen would be the city i would say buy if you plan on staying a while or if you want some equity get a fixer upper no one has a crystal ball but buying far and will always outweigh renting

Nimer,

The bottom line is there is no one alive who has any idea what the market will do in the future. The subprime crisis will take years to play out.

An argument could be made that property values will tank. Merrill and Citi are taking massive hits. Others will also. Huge layoffs on Wall St and zero bonuses could follow affecting Manhattan real estate adversely. Hoboken could then be adversely affected also. If you think about quality of life and what you get for $350,000 in Hoboken, it really is a joke. Congestion, noise, poor air quality, bad roads, impossible parking. And all for a small 1BR condo apartment in a converted brownstone with no view and probably no common facilities. If it were me, I'd look at other areas. But that's just me.

OTOH, an argument can be made that economic fundamentals remain strong and values will hold. So your timeframe becomes very important. If it is likely you could be relocated or be forced to move within 3-5 years, I would NOT buy right now. If on the other hand, your job situation is stable and you will most likely stay in that apartment for more than 5 years, buying makes more sense.

Your personal situation should dictate your decision. If you want your own place, and the tax deductibility is an attraction, and you can find something sensible, go for it. I WOULD NOT think of real estate as an investment for the forseeable future. Even if values do not tank, significant appreciation seems unlikely for many years.

Also, if I were going to buy, I'd wait until at least the spring, studying median home values on a monthly basis. You will always have a good sample size of values because Hoboken is so densely populated that there are usually enough sales to observe a trend. If they are stable with no further horrendous mortgage news, I'd buy in the Spring. But as long as values continue to drop, I'd stay on the sidelines. There's no point in losing money in an obvious declining market.

If you are buying a condo to live in and plan to keep it for about 5 years, you should definately buy. Hoboken is absolutely a unique area - bound by water on 3 sides and a cliff on the other (finite space & supply) and with great transportation to NYC (jobs & demand). With the existing price disparity between Manhattan and Hoboken, you are looking at a great investment. I would be happy to show you some very good values and good quality units in good locations - important factors in any market.