“but the percentage of houses sold had gone up by something like 15%.”
This could be do to the fact that houses were “chrurning” for lack of a better word.
“Folks buying starter homes generally don’t have much to put down, so the prices of these homes more quickly adjust based on how easy it is to get a mortgage.”
Good point, this is why I say there will be good deals early on but it won’t be stuff that most people want and therefore can quickly be driven down by investors to “pencil out”. Also first time buyers who can live in “marginal” neighborhoods might score. In the early 90’s a lot of single guys I know scooped up properties in Normal Heights at lows that were never touched again. That was 6 years before the bottom.