BG, do you think if the tax credits, low interest rates, foreclosure moratoriums, HAMP and other govt. efforts, and the continual prop marketing/lobbying of the RE industry were absent, prices would be where they are now? If you look at S&P’s Case Shiller index over a twenty year period, it’s hard to see how today’s prices are justified in terms of increased incomes. For as long as debt is the cause of price inflation, then it seems doubtful home price appreciation is creating wealth. If a martian was watching, it/he/she would be saying their (humans) problem was debt related, and they are trying to solve it with more debt. I wouldn’t blame them for invading us.