Real estate markets rise and fall on sentiment.  If everyone believes prices will rise then demand exceeds supply and prices rise.  However if everyone believes prices will fall then everyone wants to sell and no one wants to buy.  We are already in a market where people with average incomes can not affort to buy.  And this is in a market with near historic low interest rates.   It is at the point where any small tug on the rug could topple the whole market.  And the scary thing is that years of price increases can be erased in a very short period of time.  Panic only occurs on the downside.  It doesn't take a lot of research to figure out what can happen.  Just read about real estate in a market like Florida in 2008.