[central_va]

I guess they were right about the bubble, oh I forgot, there's nothing to see here, move on.

[AndyTheBear]

Sixteen years ago would be 1992. Was that a time of depression too?</satire>

[SuziQ]

This news is not surprising. When sales started slowing back in early 2006, builders, for the most part, stopped building large numbers of speculative homes. So there is an inventory of them that has been lowering over the last 18 months or so. So there are fewer new homes to sell overall.

As for the 'prolonged' slump, it's not anything new. The same thing happened in the late 80's. We had just bought our home in mid 1988 when the downturn began. It seemed like it was early in 1992 before the values started rising again. The drop in 1988 was proportional to the most recent one. We 'lost' about 20% off our purchase price in the previous slump, and this time, based on recent sales on our street, of homes that haven't been updated, the reduction in value is about 15%

[Travis McGee]

"American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage."~~Alan Greenspan, February 22, 2004

“The use of a growing array of derivatives and the related application of more-sophisticated approaches to measuring and managing risk are key factors underpinning the greater resilience of our largest financial institutions.”~~Alan Greenspan, May 2005

"We're not about to go into a situation where (real estate) prices will go down. There is no evidence home prices are going to collapse."~~Alan Greenspan, May 21, 2006

“The damage from the subprime market has been largely contained. Fortunately, the financial system and the economy are strong enough to weather this storm.”~~Richard Fisher, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President, Apr 4, 2007

"All that said, given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system."~~Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, May 17, 2007

I don't think we're headed into a recession. But there's no question we're in a slow down and that's why we acted with over $150 billion worth of pro-growth economic incentives, mainly money going into the hands of our consumers... The purpose is to encourage our consumers - to give 'em money - to help deal with the adverse effect of the decline in housing values.~~President George W. Bush, Feb 28, 2008

[YHAOS]

What an outstanding home buying opportunity.

[Pelham]

Didn’t you get the memo?

There was No Bubble.

Talk like that only comes from Democrats, Doom & Gloomers, the Main Street Media, and other communists trying to sell you gold coins.