DWCAP, I think you misinterpreted HLS’ post. He was not claiming that Irvine, Santa Clarita and Temecula boomed and then were cut off by high gas prices. He was pointing out that over time in So Cal, we’ve had ups and downs but this latest up was an exception, that we aren’t in a housing crisis but rather a needed reset to reality and traditional financing. Having lived in two of the three aforementioned regions during their booms, in the case of Irvine in the 1970’s and Santa Clarita of the 1980’s, both attracted people and ended up quite autonomous today, especially Irvine. Irvine isn’t being cut off because people can’t afford to get to their jobs from there, the jobs are there now.

People didn’t stop buying because of commodity prices, people stopped because the prices were fundamentally unsound, caused by destructive financing.