...2. Buy a home, not an investment: A lot of people got hurt in the housing bust because they bought homes as short-term investments. With the market expected to decline further this year, 2009 won't be a good time to get back into real estate flipping. You're better off buying for the long haul. "If you're not planning on living in that house for more than three to five years, I wouldn't buy anything right now," says Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California...
