[quote=Cabal] Every month ask 100 people of diverse backgrounds if they think it’s a good time to buy a house. If the answer is 50% positive, we may have turned the corner.[/quote]

I agree with a lot of what you say, but if you asked the same 100 people during the bubble peak what they thought, many would have been positive, otherwise why did they buy, but look how wrong they were.

However, if posters here are representative of the market, then it’s pretty clear that not everyone believes were close to a bottom. The very fact that we are still discussing price declines means that there is still so much uncertainty, which is not a harbinger of confidence. Below is apparently what Robert Shiller thinks.

HOME prices in the United States have been falling for nearly three years, and the decline may well continue for some time …something is definitely different about real estate. Long declines do happen with some regularity. And despite the uptick last week in pending home sales and recent improvement in consumer confidence, we still appear to be in a continuing price decline. ROBERT J. SHILLER June 6, 2009 New York Times

So without going out onto the streets and asking a 100 people, I’d say we have not turned the corner yet.