BobS
Time lags explain this. You are approximately correct that the “bad times”, ie. recession and outflow of defense jobs was roughly 1990 – 93. The impact on housing took a while to sink in and be reflected in housing prices, rents, and “capitulation” by homeowners leading to the late peak in foreclosures your graph shows. Accordingly, housing prices were approximately flat in the mid-1990s, and only began their long ascent in about 1997 & 1998.
The lesson for today: Our decline will last a lot longer, and the bottom will be more of a flattening out for possibly an extended period of time. Don’t look for a V-shaped recovery. There will be plenty of time to pick through the debris.
