But, ah, you may say. There lies proof that the bubble is bursting. Prices are going down. I'll concede that, as I must, but it ain't a bubble. Bubbles burst, often with a quick drop in prices where values of assets fall by 50% or more. It happened with tulips and web-content companies, but it's not happening in housing. Real estate just isn't that liquid. You can't buy and sell it quickly. God forbid if you could. Given the conditions in the market, quick real-estate transactions would've driven home prices even higher, where a three-bedroom townhouse with riparian rights could be bandied around like another Pets.com. Then, the fall in prices would be more severe. But that's not the nature of this particular beast. Instead, we have prices coming down to levels where thinking people, after a long, often tedious, process, are willing to buy. That sounds like an efficient market to my ears.
