Clap if you believe in fairies!

From the Hartford Courant, we have Rich Green reporting on: Gold Coast Not So Golden.

Beside those handcrafted stonewalls and putting green-perfect lawns that stretch for acres across lower Fairfield County, for sale signs are as common as a new Lexus.

The experts tell us not to worry about a 1980s-style real estate crash. But here at the busy intersection of Wall Street wealth and spacious stainless steel kitchens, the story is different from the rest of the state.

Home sales are slowing all over, but on the Gold Coast the market has plummeted, with sales down by nearly 20 percent through the end of June, compared with last year. There's no panic, but a lot of people are wondering.

I asked John Clapp, a business professor at the University of Connecticut, whether a collapse in Fairfield County could trigger the rest of the state.

"There certainly are some danger signs. It is possible that things will go down a lot," said Clapp, who is affiliated with the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economic Studies. "But it's hard to see a dramatic decline in prices like in the 1980s."

Shouldn't the reporter be asking, "Why is it hard?"

And don't you think that the professor who's "associated" wih the Center for Real Estate (read: shill for the NAR.) could be a just a little bit biased?

A teensy? A weensy? A soupçon?

Besides, the good professor even gets his dates wrong! In the mid-to-latish 80's, real estate had a big boom, and the big crash occurred in the very late 80's, and the pain was felt well into the mid-90's.

I guess being an academic means never having to say you're sorry!