Sdr, what you’re totally ignoring is the fact that price drops WERE moving into the “more deirable” neighborhoods. Prices don’t all move at once, they roll into and out of areas during the RE cycle. The ONLY reason prices didn’t drop as much in the higher-end areas is because the Fed and govt intervened when they saw that the housing bust wasn’t “contained” in the lower-end areas. [/quote]
I disagree. The primary factor in prices declining less (percentage-wise) in the high end was that they did not overinflate as much on the run-up.
If you look at Rich’s recent voiceofsandiego.org article (and many prior ones) you can see that lower end homes increased by nearly 200% in the bubble, whereas the high-end increased by about 125%. The high end was a smaller bubble.
The image I am referring to in Rich’s article is posted below for reference.
