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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- It is s tough to buy a home right now.

According to the Colorado Division of Housing, the national homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent in 2010.

That is down from a high of nearly 70 percent.

Recent reports have noted the drop in the homeownership rate is the largest since the Great Depression.

Experts said more people are running scared, weary of the market.

"I am seeing a lot of buyers that are not sure if we have hit the bottom yet and are not wanting to buy something and have it be worth less six months from now," certified mortgage planner DJ Stabler said.

Stabler said for those who do want to buy, now is of course a great time.

He said the problem is many people still are not wher

"Over the past few years a lot of people struggled with credit, and 2008 and 2009 were bad years," Stabler said. "People are starting to recover from that, but we still have to justify why they are now a good candidate for a home loan."

As we have seen, foreclosures have also had an effect on the market, as many people are holding out for a good deal.

But local realtors said home prices are flatlining.

"We are still seeing the prices drop down a little bit, but we do not expect that to continue much more," realtor Hank Poburka said. "They should stabilize as we bounce off the bottom and come back up."

Poburka said another reason for the decline is banks are putting pressure on buyers to put more money down, which is unrealistic for many people.

"Some banks are asking for 20 percent down, and that is just not feasible for homeownership today, and is probably not going to happen." Poburka said. "The pressure is to get higher quality people into the homes so they have less foreclosures."

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