real estate market - good time to buy?

[Laniece Miller]

As a someone just starting to investigate the possibilities of real estate, I'm still learning to filter out the media noise from what is actually important.  I keep seeing general articles that there just isn't the supply, especially for starting homes, which is driving prices up and making it hard for people to buy homes.  Is this really the case, or am I just in a more expensive area than some?