I never said anything about long term..
did anybody see Alan Kohler on the 7.30 Report being interviewed by Kerry O'Brien tonight ?
it was about real estate values, AK said that the bottom end of the market was doing ok however the top end of the market is where the great pain is..he expects drops of 25 to 50% in higher priced/topend real estate..
what affects the topend will eventually flowdown to affect the bottom end i reckon.
real estate agents are already seeing a slowdown in movement of property over $500k..
if you can buy the same old 500,000 dollar house right now or for an extra 50K buy something of a distressed financial worker who has had to sell a house that would have fetched a mil or more a few months back, you buy the nicer place, then the house you have passed on has one fewer interested party, so its price comes under pressure, and so on down the line, meanwhile, as unemployment rises fewer people can afford to buy, but more people who lose their jobs also have to sell, so the market sags again.
Its the rich who lose first, but the poor who lose most, as fewer lattes are drunk and fewer flatscreens are bought, pretty soon waitresses and floormen will lose thier jobs, then we will see the bottom end start to suffer.