You can see how fixed rate mortgages trend during periods of recession here: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US

Using this data, you can make some guesstimates on how waiting might effect your home purchasing decision.

By my read, mortgage rates tend to decrease during a recession. However, mortgage rates are already very low, so the potential savings may not be meaningful.

Wouldn't the larger driver be a potential fall in house prices?

With the exception of the 2008 financial crisis, housing prices typically appreciate during times of recession, albeit more modestly. My guess is that this is primarily driven by falling mortgage rates.

"The FHFA U.S. house price index rose by an average of 7.4 percent in the year prior to a recession and prices rose an average of 2.7 percent from the start of a recession to the end" [ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/11/housing-could-be-an-unlikely... ]

> With the exception of the 2008 financial crisis, housing prices typically appreciate during times of recession, albeit more modestly. My guess is that this is primarily driven by falling mortgage rates

My guess is that it's a smaller market with less price sensitive buyers, based on who can afford to buy and who is therefore likely to sell during a recession (the late 00s recession being different because of the central role of the housing market collapse in that recession.)