Back in June we first observed that "America's Most Important Housing Market Signals A Red Alert For Housing Bubble Watchers [6]" and showed the following chart:
[7]
As expected, since then things have only gotten worse, and as today's Case-Shiller report confirmed, the annual price increase in San Francisco has now put double-digit percent appreciation territory in the rear view mirror, and has slid back into the single digits, or 9% Y/Y to be precise (and only the second .
[8]
At this rate, all else equal, San Francisco home prices will slide into negative territory in another 5-6 months: only the fourth time they have done so in the past two decades.
In fact, as the chart demonstrates, there has never been a time when the all important leading indicator that is the San Fran housing market (see here [6] for the reasons why) has posted such a steep slowdown in annual price increases without a bubble of some sort, be it the dot com, the first housing or the European sovereign debt bubble, having burst.
So: will this time finally be different?
Source: Case Shiller [9] [9]
