Up until a year or two ago the Real Estate Market had been doing quite well for sellers for a number of years. Real Estate Prices were steadily climbing across most of the country, and demand from buyers remained strong. This created an ideal market for short term Real Estate Investing, sometimes referred to as "flipping". For investors that know what they are doing, they could often deal in properties with very little of their own money involved, and often make nice profits in a short period of time, mostly from knowing where to go, what to look for, and handling paperwork. Now that the market has shifted so dramaticly, there are - ironicly - more foreclosures available on the market than ever. But there's a problem now with short term investing; you can't be so sure how soon you'll be able to sell it. So if you actually put the title in your name on the deal, be prepared to become a Semi-long term investor for the time being.
For more on this, see the article "How low will real estate go?" by Lacey Rose of Forbes.
Also See the The Real Estate Bloggers for another interesting article about the current real estate market shifts.
