Like an isolated manic phase before an all-encompassing flameout, the real estate bubble looks increasingly like a symptom of larger long-term economic forces at work. The recession wiped out nearly two decades of Americans' wealth as if it had never existed, resetting the clock of economic progress for poor and middle class Americans to 1992. (The wealthiest Americans, of course, saw their net worth increase.)

Over a span of three years, Americans watched progress that took almost a generation to accumulate evaporate. The promise of retirement built on the inevitable rise of the stock market proved illusory for most. Homeownership, once heralded as a pathway to wealth, became an albatross.

Recent news of the stabilization of housing prices sound increasingly like news that we're simply becoming competent water-treaders. The market has transformed into something much harder than it has been since the 70s recession, although arguably it's been headed that way the whole time, buoyed by credit and lies.