ONE ECONOMIST WARNS OF CONDO PRICE FREE FALL

"A rising inventory of homes in the DC region could fuel a double-digit price decline if interest rates climb higher," Economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy and Research said in the the WaPo. Condo prices could fall by as much as 30 percent, and prices of single-family homes could drop by as much as 15 percent, he prediected.

But former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan echoed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's analysis in a speech last night to the Bond Market Association in New York. "The boom is over. We can say that with some confidence," Greenspan said. But, he added, "there is no evidence that prices are going to collapse."

Greenspan predicted that the U.S. market was more likely to follow the path set by housing markets in Australia and Britain, where "prices just flattened out."