Looking it over myself, I’d have to conclude they were relatively local ( I was thinking of western land specuation in colonial days in particular)http://www.google.com/search?q=real+estate+bubbles+history&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=qau_StXfLsTR8Aay9PWdAQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11
Land speculation caused the inflation in real estate prices you refer to.
The current real estate bubble was caused by lending money to people who were not qualified for loans. The more buyers you have, the higher the price of the commodity is driven - simple supply and demand.
But part of the demand was not real - it was demand from people who could not afford to make the payments and who ultimately defaulted.
When they defaulted, prices plummeted to more realistic levels that were supportable by real demand, not fraudulent demand stimulated by fraudulent government policies.