Is it time to buy a house? Depends…

If you need a place to live and want to own a house, why not? Prices in some areas are fairly reasonable. But if you’re speculating, our guess is that you’ll get a better deal if you wait.

Why? For the many reasons we have given you in these Daily Reckonings. House prices may be firming in some areas – that’s what the Case-Shiller numbers seem to show. But nationwide, they are probably headed down for quite a while longer.

Herewith, four reasons why:

First, as you know, this is a depression. It will probably be long. And deep. You wouldn’t know it from looking at the stock market or reading the news. The Dow went up another 114 points yesterday. Oil rose to $71. And the dollar – anticipating inflation – fell to $1.44 per euro.

But that’s what bounces are supposed to look like.

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Oil prices fell today after the government released a report showing that crude inventories have continued to grow, indicating that the demand for oil and gasoline will not rebound anytime soon. Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell 50 cents to settle at $37.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories grew by 1.2 million barrels for the week ended Friday. That was below the expectation of 3 million barrels, according to the average of estimates in a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Let us hear your thoughts below:

Oil prices had climbed 43 percent from a five-year low of $33.87 a barrel on fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread to the rest of oil-rich Middle East and affect supplies. Today, however, energy prices tumbled across the board after a government report showed U.S. oil reserves were much greater than expected.

According to the Energy Information Administration, inventories rose 6.7 million barrels, well past the 1.5 million-barrel build expected by analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Analyst Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said it was one of the more bearish EIA reports he’s seen in a while.

Commenting on the recent rally in oil prices, Ritterbusch said, “It didn’t have a lot of fundamental impetus behind it, and now we’re getting evidence that there’s a lot more crude and product supply out there than what we

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McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP) announced today that it cut 375 jobs during the fourth quarter. The company will take a charge of $16.4 million in the fourth quarter after taxes with this move.

The New York-based company eliminated 1,045 positions last year. McGraw-Hill is a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") company.

"MHP" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

The IEA confirms what I've been saying all along: There isn't enough oil supply on the planet to meet demand. And that's not about to change anytime soon. A new oil supply crunch looms as oil companies have put the brakes on sorely needed investment to increase oil production to satisfy future demand and to offset the accelerating declines of today's aging fields. This at a time when opportunities to invest are more constrained than ever. Bullish for oil? You bet. My longer-term target of $200 oil remains intact.   Energy agency warns of supply crunchNovember 12, 2008, LONDON (AP) — The International Energy Agency on Wednesday called for massive investment in producing more oil to prevent a supply squeeze in coming years, saying energy demand will rise 1.6 percent a year on average between 2006 and 2030.The IEA's base scenario for energy demand has fallen due to

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