"All of a sudden, it just fell off a cliff"

"You would think there would be more depression and despair," he said, noting that his own house has lost about $140,000 in appraised value in a year.

"But in this market here, there's still some strange optimism. People haven't thrown in the towel. ... People are still moving into this market. We remain optimistic."

[Mish] Comment: We cannot possibly bottom as long as people remain optimistic. A necessary but not sufficient ingredient of a lasting bottom is despair.