Also hidden in this story is one factor that’s keeping house prices up — kickbacks from the seller to the buyer. In many cases a sale will go on the books at an inflated price, but what’s not shown is that the seller gave the buyer $10K for a down payment or whatever. Some realtors love this sort of monkey business because it allows them to keep up the illusion that prices aren’t falling. What’s amazing is that the buyers are so stupid as to volunteer for increased transaction costs and property taxes. As someone smarter than me once said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American.”