This November saw a 11.3% drop in new housing starts because of the anticipation that subsidies for housing would cease.  Does that tell us something?  Subsidies cause a false market to exist.  That is economics 101.  Yet our government and the National Association of Realtors fail to see this reality.  Instead the NAR lobbies to fill their own commission pockets while they fail to see the long term impact that subsidies are really not that good for the consumer.  The fact is they cause an unrealistic over valuation of properties.  I call them government concessions.  When a seller gives concessions to the buyer appraisers take that into account and adjust for it to show the true market value.  When the government gives subsidies we should be adjusting present sale prices downward in light of an undue outisde influence, because when the subsidies are taken off values will drop because demand will drop.  That doesn't sound good for the consumer does it.  Yet the NAR isn't thinking about the consumer.  They are thinking about their commissions.  It is the fox guarding the hen house.  The fact is that we should let the market dictate the prices and values.  All those people that bought under the subsidy program may actually see their values decline in the next year without the subsidies.   Not good for those holding the mortgage paper is it!   We see that in the new home starts.  I predict it will happen in the existing home market.