Why the Housing Market is At or Near Bottom

[opebo]

Nice chart. I hadn't realized how flat to declining housing prices were through the 1990s. I bought in 1988 and knew that there was a decline in the recession of the early 90's, but since there was so much new construction growth in my area after that, I didn't pick up the lack of price growth.

That chart doesn't necessarily imply flat-to-declining house prices during the 1990s, does it?  Just that they were not increasing at any rate higher than that of rents.

[opebo]

Prices may have ceased falling in some areas, such as the above mentioned San Francisco metro, but in many parts of the country they will have to fall quite a bit more.  The median income level in much of the country has no prospect of improvement, and will likely continue to head downwards. 

In map terms something like this:

Basically the West Coast stabilized, the East Coast and a few special cases like North Dakota going up, and most of the rest of the country still going down, simply because there is nothing really for those parts of the country or the people in them to really do in the globalized marketplace.