When real estate markets collapse

Back in the late 1980s, there were home buyers in California who bought a house one day and woke up a few months later to find it was worth about half of what they paid.

Homeowners in parts of Arizona, Nevada, Florida and other hard-hit areas might feel the same way in today's real estate crisis.

When real estate markets collapse, as they did then and as some are now, the downward spiral can come quickly. The growing number of foreclosures and short sales don't help, nor does rising unemployment.

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