David Leonhardt:

As long as home prices are falling, foreclosures are likely to keep rising and the toxic assets polluting bank balance sheets are likely to stay toxic.

There are reasons, though, to think that prices may be on the verge of stabilizing. Relative to fundamentals, like household incomes and rents, houses nationwide now appear to be overvalued by only about 5 percent. You can make an argument that the end of the housing crash is near.

But that’s not what I found at the auctions.

Almost posted this earlier - Atlanta doesn't look so bad from this perspective.

The Bottom for Housing Is Probably Not Near

"This place is really nice and tranquil."

What a good message for the children...

At home on Pablo Escobar's ranch

While home prices in Atlanta haven't gone up as much as prices in other markets, this article seems to suggest that prices, particularly for condos, may be in for a crash anyway. This map, also from WSJ, singles out Atlanta as an area with a particularly high vacancy rate.

The condominium market is about to get worse as many cities brace for a flood of new supply this year -- the result of construction started at the height of the housing boom.

More than 4,000 new units will be completed in both Atlanta and Phoenix by the end of the year. Developers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., are readying nearly 10,000 total new units in a market already struggling with canyons of unsold condos. San Diego, another hard-hit region, will add 2,500 units, according to estimates provided by Reis Inc., a New York-based real-estate-research firm.

The deluge means bad news for developers and potentially lower prices, including in cities such as Atlanta and Dallas that have avoided the worst of the housing bust. If defaults and foreclosures rise, lenders will feel the pain too.

Woes in Atlanta Condo Market Build As New Supply Floods Cities

Acidus says:

Jill and I are starting to shop for a house. Having lived in a house with a scary basement including a room we affectionately deemed "the murdered children room"* this comic presents a very real and legitimate fear.

* - 6x5 room, covered with falling down acoustic tiles, drain in the floor, no windows, and it locked from the outside... Seriously, that basement was freaky. Ask anybody.

Yeah, I've seen it. He's not kidding.

Penny Arcade! - Perfectly Reasonable