If it is a "good time to buy" then prices will rise again as demand increases from (presumably) cash buyers or investors buying up things cheap. Unless you mean in minor towns and cities, where prices are only kept up by hope and expectations. Any meaningful "dip" in prices in somewhere like NYC or London and you'll find huge action from foreign investors as they swoop in to capitalise

In my opinion, house prices never "go down" in major world cities - you'll perhaps have a little 3-5% wobble for a year or so, but typically prizes just stay the same for a long time if it is a "bad market". Then when conditions improve they just start going up again. You only ever see major corrections in the xx% range of permanent decreases in places where it was a bubble and no one wanted to live in the first place. You'll very likely never get this in a NYC, SF, London type place unless there is some other huge once-in-250-years mayjor even type thing (e.g. London getting flattened in WW2 etc)