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Home prices drop 3 percent in region - NorthJersey.com
Note too that there’s an arithmetic subtlety here - “fall from peak” numbers always look small by their nature. If prices go from 100 to 200 then they rose by 100%. If they fall from 200 to 100 then they fell by 50%. Same magnitude change but reflected by a number half as large.
A one-third drop in NATIONAL real estate prices (remember when everyone said “real estate is local” as if it was somehow a talisman against the possibility of a national bubble?) would have been considered all but impossible to pretty much everyone in 2006. Well, except to those of us who saw the bubble early.
One-third drop means that if prices went from $150k to $300k between 1998 and 2006, they are back down to $200k, wiping out two-thirds of all gains. Oh and by the way - we’re not done yet.
