Seeking Alpha - "What's The Real Cause of Housing Softness?" (9-7-06)

"Marc Gerstein (Director of Investor Research, Reuters.com) submits: Toll Brothers (TOL) CEO Robert Toll acknowledged in an interview with Reuters that the housing market is experiencing something "harder than a soft landing" but attributes it, not to macroeconomic factors, but to the impact of global issues such as Iraq, terrorism and the slow U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina on the psyche of the American consumer. The National Association of Realtors [NAR] Housing Affordability Index suggests a different explanation: that homes in some parts of the United States have become so expensive, even a decline in interest rates won't help much."