Back to an investing mindset

Rummaging through my CFA notes has led me to start thinking about investments again. Not that I have the money to worry about such things for myself, but my mom wants me to help decide what to put the proceeds from the sale of my grandmothers house in. That being said, it looks like my Grandmother got out of the housing market at the right time.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/24/real_estate/pluggedin_
tully.fortune/index.htm
Hopefully in a year or two the price of a home will have dropped enough to make it cheap for me to buy a house. Although, that means that all of my friends who buy houses now will lose thousands of dollars. Well, I hope they don't. Homes really are like other assets. During a bear market there are always stocks that shoot up in value. Same with home prices. You can't use the market as a measuring stick when deciding on a specific home. You can find a steal in a really hot housing market by looking for fixer uppers and property in older, dirtier neighborhoods that are cleaning up (I'm looking at you Queen and Carlaw http://www.mls.ca/PropertyResults.aspx?Mode=0&Page=1&vs=1&rlt=&cp=&pt=0&mp=0-300000-0&mrt=-1-0-0&Beds=3-0&Baths=0-0&f=&ft=all&o=A&of=1&ps=10&ptgid=1&aid=3347&MapURL=%3fAreaID%3d6368 That's right folks, 3 bedroom homes for under 300,000 that are steps from downtown!). That being said, I don't have much faith in the new homes going up in Vaughan.