Deficiencies: I had yet another contact for whom short sale was the most likely option, but these folks were, and, IMO, remain, all too ignorant of deficiency judgments. They can hurt you. Don't let this happen.

Home prices: I' ve been doing a lot of market consultation and BPO (broker price opinion) work for asset managers, and it's starting to seem as though prices may be stabilizing.  Most areas have been stable for two months. Too early for a trend, but  hope springs eternal.

But nervousness prevails, I think. Stay tuned.

The most recent Kiplinger Letter had some dire predictions on house prices. Oregon is among those states the authors think will have to wait severn to ten years for prices to return to where they were. This is in line with my own prediction, which was based on house prices in California following the savings and loan disaster. Prices in 1994 were about the same as they were in 1988. Six years.

If this recession is worse than that one, and it is, then it's only rational to assume the price recovery will take longer.

Speaking of California, by the way--Kiplinger predicted 20 years for prices to recover in the Golden State.