U.S. GDP growth fourth-over-fourth was a fast 3.1% in both 2005 and 2006, despite constant talk of a consumer slowdown, Katrina and then the house-building correction.
Using a model that ties house prices to disposable incomes and long-term interest rates, analysts at Goldman Sachs reckon that the correction in national house prices is only halfway through.
If so, the prudent in our midst who waited out the housing boom in the hope of seeing a correction could have purchased a great deal more in the way of house on the relative cheap.