I think the bigger markets just take longer to respond, but respond they will. . . I'm betting on a 50% drop in values in parts of Southern Cali.

Little markets are like canoes - they can turn on a dime. Big markets are like supertankers. They turn, but it takes a while - and once started in a direction, they stay going that way for a while until there's a lot of force acting on them.

You could associate it with prime rib and sub prime would be cow rectum.

We put our house for sale in New-Jersey. After 3 days on the market, we got a buyer. We had 10 showings in the first week. After negotiations, we agreed to $367.5K for an asking price of $379.9K. I was happy with that, and we made an offer on our dream house. And then, our buyer lost her buyer, and the whole deal fell appart. But I am not too worried about selling it. We may just lose our dream house. I owe $147K on my house that I bought for $155K. So my profit was going to be $220K.
It is all relative anyways, since we are putting that money back in another house. If we sell for less, we will buy for less too.

Our house for sale.

Our dream house.

Aurel