The bursting of the real estate bubble is no longer news. We can watch it unfold before our very eyes, as if we were watching some distant star explode a billion light years away. The three pictures shown below show a snap shot of the real estate explosion and subsequent implosion.
The first chart shows Washington DC housing prices from 2001 through part of 2008. The dates are fixed on all charts. Washington DC was chosen because of its similarities to the national average. You can see the darker blue bars, which represent the national average, are fairly close to Washington D.C.'s figures.
Overall, the nation's capital had a rather mild expansion and an equally mild crash. Prices rose about 25% at the peak in early 2005, and down less than 20% in the middle of this year.
All charts from the NY Times
A more pronounced bubble is seen in the Los Angeles chart, below. LA prices rose over 30% at their peak (in mid 2004), and have plunged closer to 30% since.
To read the rest of the article and see graphs of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, click Here
For a more detailed analysis of the current economic crisis, see my most recent article on Seeking Alpha.
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