Air Out of the Real Estate Bubble?

With each passing day, there seem to be more and more signs that the air is coming out of the real estate bubble in the U.S. News of layoffs at mortgage lenders and investigations of some mortgage lenders seem to be consistent with the popping of a bubble. Most of the economic data and trends related to real estate are also consistent with a downturn in real estate. The Economist magazine has an article (March 22, 2007) analyzing the rise in foreclosures and the downward direction of the real esate market.