(via Case Shiller 100 Year Chart (2011 Update) | The Big Picture) This should tell you what you need to know to project housing over the coming couple of years. Note the tiny blip caused by the hundred of billions of tax dollars given to people who bought houses and collected the $8,000 tax credit. This will likely go down as one of the most expensive and least efficient fiscal policy tools we’ve ever seen. One other thing I’d observe - it’s become common for lots of people (particularly those in finance) to say, “everyone knew we were in a bubble” back in 2006 when the Times published the first version of this chart. The exact opposite is true. Virtually no one actually believed a bubble was real. This time, it seemed, was going to be different.

(via Case Shiller 100 Year Chart (2011 Update) | The Big Picture)

This should tell you what you need to know to project housing over the coming couple of years. Note the tiny blip caused by the hundred of billions of tax dollars given to people who bought houses and collected the $8,000 tax credit. This will likely go down as one of the most expensive and least efficient fiscal policy tools we’ve ever seen.

One other thing I’d observe - it’s become common for lots of people (particularly those in finance) to say, “everyone knew we were in a bubble” back in 2006 when the Times published the first version of this chart. The exact opposite is true. Virtually no one actually believed a bubble was real. This time, it seemed, was going to be different.