_Getting Graphic is a semi-sort-of-irregular collection of our favorite BIG real estate-related chart(s)._

Source: NYT

Floyd Norris makes the brilliant but simple comment:

_IF you raise prices enough, people will stop buying._

in his article [In Housing as in Most Things: What’s Up the Most, Falls the Most [NYT]](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/realestate/26charts.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fNews%2fBusiness%2fColumns%2fFloyd%20Norris&oref=slogin).

I have always pictured the US as the cross section of a boat. When the water gets choppy (such as a housing boom or bust) the east and west coasts move up and down more than the center of the country. Well, this past housing boom has proved to be no exception.

Home sales as a percentage, have generally fallen further on the coasts than they have in the Midwest. In other words, areas that saw the largest jump in housing prices during the boom, are the same areas that are seeing the largest drop in home sale activity. A realization seems to have set in that was lacking before: price levels were pushed beyond affordability before buyers realized it.

This drop in activity is caused inventory levels of existing single family homes to swell. On a national level inventory has generally ranged from 2 to 2.5 million homes. With the drop off in demand, home inventories are nearly at 4 million.