Home Prices Fall - No Surprise

Two major housing price indexes, a 20-city and 10-city compilation by Standard & Poor's and Case-Shiller, both hit record declines. But there's no surprise if you've been even cursorily following the economic churn in the country.

The "value" that people perceived was a result of demand, over-supply of money, speculation, and a general economic hysteria. Not being grounded in anything truly substantial, it was waiting to evaporate, and now we're seeing that happen. But I actually think this is good news for the economy, getting back to a more realistic state that might allow more moderate but supportable growth.