So is the housing market busting its bubble?

This is a question being asked by folks looking to sell and those in the market to buy. If you’re not sure what to do in this real estate market, I suggest you pick up a copy of a book, “House Poor: Pumped-Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids” (Collins, $21.95) by June Fletcher.

Fletcher, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has been writing about real estate and home-related issues for more than 20 years. She promises tips for surviving what she calls the “coming housing crisis.”

Mortgage interest rates are climbing, and, in many areas of the country, homes are staying on the market much longer than in recent years. Home prices are coming down or aren’t rising at paces that would make one’s pacemaker falter.

“It all seems so unstable, even experienced real estate investors are becoming nervous,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher walks readers though the agonizing and often frustrating decision of whether to continue to rent or buy. She understands that many people can’t afford to buy and therefore they feel like failures because they have to rent.

Her advice if you are in this position is reasonable.

The real issue isn’t if you will be stuck being a renter all your life, she says. It’s whether you’ll get so scared about being shut out that you’ll buy at the market’s peak and be stuck in a property you can’t afford or sell.

One of the best neutral calculators on whether it’s best to rent or own can be found at www.mtgprofessor.com, Fletcher advises.