With the price correction during the current real estate cycle homes once out or reach for many buyer can now be purchased with more affordable loans.  

This is also a great market for first time home buyers, because not only are there many homes to choose from with very attractive prices but there are loans as well, even very low down payment loans though the criteria is more stringent for obtaining those loans. 

Just to give you an idea.   A home in central Phoenix that was $450,000 and now is $325,000.   The payment before would have been approximately $2,845 and now its approximately $2,055 plus your taxes and insurance, based on a 6.5% rate for comparison only.  That is a significant drop not only in price but in the monthly payment. 

There are homes as well that were $300,000 and are now $180,000.  In fact the median home price in Phoenix is close to $180,000 and in Maricopa county it's down to $220,000, so the payment will be much lower then for the above comparison. 

At 6.5% for $180,000 the payment is $1,138 plus taxes and insurance; now that is in the realm of an apartment.  Take this opportunity to explore some homes and possibly make a purchase.  Rates will most likely not go down.  There is just too much pressure on rates to keep them at these levels.