"FOreclosures are also way up om FL, TX, and MA."
Well, don't let me stop the rain on your parade. I have never understood this apparent need for nationwide doom in residential real estate, though. Fact of the matter is, vast swathes of the US never experienced the bizarre runup in prices over the past four or five years, and are in little danger of a price collapse now. Employment is the key, and always has been, for any major depreciation in housing prices, and even then it's regional, if not local.
I beg to differ, the key now is interest rates and priciple. A large number of the loans on houses (equity and mortgages) are now interest only and arms with teaser rates. Those rate are this year starting to reset in earnest. A situation only mad worse by the interest rate hikes from the fed. When these interest rates go house payments go up dramatically. Could you afford for you house payment to increase by 30% to 505 in one years? And if you could where in your family budget would you cut to pay for it?