There was no housing bubble until it burst

Great catch by the Cunning Realist...

In this piece in today's WSJ about the rapidly cooling housing market, David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said "The air is coming out of the balloons."

Let's recall an excerpt from this WaPo article slightly over six months ago:

"There is no national housing bubble," said Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors and author of the recent book, "Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?"

"Any talk about the housing market crashing is ludicrous," he said.

Lereah said the national real estate market is an amalgam of local real estate markets and that for a local bubble to burst, there would have to be "rising housing inventories, double-digit price appreciation for several years consecutively and then a local negative economic effect, like big job losses. Right now, most local areas have a lean supply of homes. And the Washington area is creating tens of thousands of jobs rather than losing any."

So the "air is coming out of the balloons" now, eh David? When did those balloons inflate in the first place?

Smarter shrills, please.