[perfect_rovian_storm]

You couldn’t rent for enough to cover the mortgage and prices were hugely inflated. (People don’t like to hear it, but they still are.) Especially in places like SoCal. You’re talking about being in a situation where you’re on the hook for a $5k/mo mortgage for a house that wouldn’t sell for half that now.

The RE market has a lot more pain coming its way before it starts to rise again. When TBTB decided to create a real estate bubble, they doomed us to decades of trouble.

[dalereed]

What the hell is that TBTB alphabet soup crap?

[giotto]

Prices in California have fallen 50% from their 2006 highs, but they are still too high. $300K will buy a shack on a tiny lot. In any other part of the country, that same 300K will buy a house twice the size on a lot 3 times as big.

California's no-growth policy is the reason. The list of the 100 US cities with the smallest houses contains 43 California cities.