[riverdawg]

"It's hard to drop the price of a home below the cost of building the same structure in place."

Thanks for injecting some sanity into this thread. Anyone who has priced concrete, lumber, or copper (to name just a few housing materials) in recent months knows that the cost of new construction has risen substantially, as has the cost of buying and developing buildable lots. These costs are what drives the prices of existing homes in the long run in most areas. In the short run, of course, house flippers and people who have to sell quickly because of divorce, unexpected job change, etc. may lose money. The former is the occasional consequence of purposeful risk-taking; the latter can be a personal financial tragedy for those involved but is hardly cause for the mass hysteria fomented by some.

[LM_Guy]

Lumber prices have fallen, just read an article on that fact.