Is Atlanta just as hosed as Las Vegas?

A quarterly survey of housing-market data in 28 major metro areas shows sharp drops in the number of homes listed for sale across the country. But the potential supply of homes is far larger because banks are likely to acquire significant numbers of foreclosed homes in some areas, notably Las Vegas, Atlanta, Detroit, Phoenix, Miami and other parts of Florida, and Sacramento, Calif., over the next few years.

The national apartment-vacancy rate in the third quarter was 7.8%, the highest in 23 years. Apartment rents may face further downward pressure as investors buy foreclosed single-family homes and turn them into rental units.

David Leonhardt, in April:

If you are part of the 30 percent of American households who rent and you're trying to decide when to buy, relax.

The market is still coming your way.

Nouriel Roubini:

Things are going to be awful for everyday people.

John Bird and John Fortune:

They thought that if they had a bigger mortgage they could get a bigger house. They thought if they had a bigger house, they would be happy. It's pathetic. I've got four houses and I'm not happy.

Sheila Bair:

We need to return to the culture of thrift that my mother and her generation learned the hard way through years of hardship and deprivation.

Have you seen "Revolutionary Road"?

Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.