Orange County Register - "A bottom best-case for '08 housing" (1-6-08)

"There is no unanimous verdict on this year's market in my collection of predictions that were assembled, in part, for my real estate blog. But nobody seems very chipper at this moment in time. Those observers closest to the housing game seem the most optimistic that the market's serious slump may be a bad memory by year's end."

Orange County Register - "Real estate means real economic risks" (1-6-08)

"Troubles in the real estate market are weighing on the economic outlook for Orange County in 2008. Economists are divided on whether the sagging housing market will tip the county's economy into recession. It all depends on how you define recession. Economists at Chapman University are predicting that job losses in the real estate, lending and construction sectors will pull the county's job growth rate into negative territory for two consecutive calendar quarters; that's Chapman's definition of a recession."