From a purely theoretical standpoint, house prices need to fall to match those at the start of the bubble in 2000. Why? Because otherwise we have to believe in The Free Lunch. For The Free Lunch to be true it must be possible for a person to buy a house, do nothing except sit on a couch drinking beer for the next 5 years and get rich in the process. Examining 70 past examples of asset bubbles we find that The Free Lunch has never worked before and it’s very unlikely to work this time either.
