Home Value Recovery May Take Decades

...As painful as the decline has been, history suggests home values still may have a long way to drop and may take decades to return to the heights of 2½ years ago.

... values nationally have tumbled an average of 19% from their peak. As bad as that is, prices would need to fall as least 17% more to reach their traditional relationship to household income...

...the typical existing home was worth roughly the same in 2000 as it was in 1950, after adjusting for inflation,...From 2002 to 2006, houses went from being a tortoise to a hare in the investment world...

...Home values floated at about three times average household income from 1950 to 2000. In 2006, the average household income was $66,500. Under the traditional model, home prices should have been about $200,000. Instead, the typical home sold for $301,000.

Read the whole article here.