Morning Artur, this is a very good article with great graphs, and your point IS very well taken.

However, your other article about Biltmore, shows U.S. that, as you continue to point out, all is NOT what is seems to be.  And, that only looking at "average prices" tells you almost nothing about the home you may be looking at.

Just as trying to out bid everyone else in 2006 made no economic sense, trying to bottom feed on every home now make no sense.  But, IF you see a home that you really, really like; near where you want to live; you CAN negotiate a price and terms that WILL make sense for YOU. This is not only the land of opportunity, it is "The Time" of opportunities.

Buying a home, WISELY in this market is a lot like asking a person you truly love to marry you. In the long run it may not work out exactly as you would have liked, but to NOT experience the pleasure(s), is to never know what you might have missed.

There are discrepancies between the greater market, the city, the neighborhood or individual homes.  

A home near one our listing in Mesa recently sold or $382,000 in 2 days while homes that are 50% larger in the same neighborhood for or lower amount have been listed, some for over 6 months.  That former home had something unique for the neighborhood, a lot that was twice as large as most of them.

I point this out that each and every segment needs a careful individual look.  Not only the home itself, but its architectural style, it price range etc. because each of these is a market in itself that follows it's own trends. 

None the less any buyer or seller needs to know the trends of the neighborhood, the city, metro area and even state and national sentiment because they make a difference as well.  Just look at the national impact of the $8,000 tax credit:  it changed the mind set of a lot of people even if it does not directly affect them.

The Biltmore area is a case in point.  It is an area rich in diversity of housing stock.  Most of the homes are lower priced, or somewhere under $300,000 and these are in their own market and about half the stock is over $300,000 and up to several million dollars.  These are also in their own market.  The high end is really slow now, though it's picked up a bit, while the low end, especially under $200K is still selling quickly.

The discrepancy is big and often shows opposite results from one segment to the other, but all of it needs to be considered.

The other thing is that there is a distinct difference between investors and home owners.  Home owners have emotional attachments to property while investors, for the most part, don't.