The Bush housing bubble has finally come to a halt as the interest rates rise and the number of prospective buyers dwindle and they refuse to pay the listed price.

In the latest and strongest indication that the home buying and selling frenzy is over, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday that sales of previously owned homes fell to the lowest level in July in more than two years, prices flattened and sellers waited longer and longer to find buyers for their homes. The supply of unsold houses on the market hit a record high.

Although some continue to say that this is an orderly slowdown, signs indicate that the optimism might be misplaced.

“Certainly, the housing market is undergoing a measurable adjustment,” Lawrence Yun, senior economist with the Realtor association, said. “It’s a continuing cooling trend.”

The number of unsold homes on the market reached a record for the second consecutive month. There are now enough homes available that it would take 7.3 months to sell them all if the current selling rate held.

The bloated inventory levels, Mr. Yun said, indicate “a very sudden change which I have never seen before.”

Sure, I say, this is just like earlier slowdowns.

The real problem comes in California where Mr. Greenspan convinced huge numbers of people to take out ARM loans so they could buy their "dream home." Last year before the market cooled, I heard that in California, 25% of the new home mortgages being written were for interest only loans and those mortgages are going to come due in a market where there will be no buyers to buy those overpriced homes. And as another sign this change will not be good is during the second quarter, foreclosures in California rose by 67%.

When the housing bubble breaks, what's left to pickup the pieces? Oh, that's right, we do have a number of openings in the military. Or perhaps, the unemployed construction workers can get picked up to help build the border fence. (And such a deal that is, only $1.829 Billion is needed to build a fence to protect our borders. That should help keep a quite a few construction workers gainfully employed unless Kellogg-Brown gets the contract.)This Bush economy is going down before he leaves office, it will be like Yucca Flats after the blast, of that there will be no doubt!