I like Mr. Streitfield's straightforward style. The LA Times is well suited to have a straight shooter like him on their payroll. On another note, Rich's quote in the article has to be one of my favorite housing market quotes so far:

The good news, as seen by Toscano: "I don't envision a 'Grapes of Wrath' scenario where we all have to pile in the family car and look for harvesting work."

This begs the tongue-in-cheek question: Will the aforementioned 'Grapes of Wrath' scenario not play out because times aren't quite so bad, or will it be because all of the harvesting work is being taken up by those that are from south of the border?