Head in the sand

I'm not a real estate expert by any means, but my reading of the market is that, on the whole, we're still in decline. Interesting read in the Fosters.com about the Seacoast Board of Realators holding a "State of the Seacoast Market" presentation.

Essentially, the presentation claims that the housing market in the seacoast (NH) is still healthy and strong, and that the realators remain "cautiously optimistic." I think they should rethink their marketing materials. Key graf buried in the last paragraph:

"Dennis Delay, deputy director of the New Hampshire Center
for Public Policy Studies, estimated that home prices will continue to drop
another 15 percent while the median price of rent will increase 15 percent
between now and 2011 in the Portsmouth area. Delay based his forecast on a
1990-2003 average of both values."

I don't have any empirical evidence but my feeling is things are going to get worse before they get better in the housing market.