If history is any guide, then the following chart from the 2012 Economic Report of the President suggests that any recovery in housing prices, contrary to what Wall Street is saying, is at least 15 to 30 months away [dotted line annotations mine].

Of course, that doesn't even take into account the unprecedented scale of the bubble that preceded the current bust, as well as supply-and-demand fundamentals that remain largely negative (not to mention the fact that when bubbles burst, they tend to overshoot on the downside).

Michael J. Panzner