See here for the data.
The decline measured by the Federal Reserve's Z.1 Flow of Funds Release, B.100, shows the peak value of US real estate in October 2006 at $25 trillion. As of October 2011 the metric has fallen to $18.1 trillion.
Note the dramatic new uptrend in valuation which began in the late 1990s coincident with tax law changes permitting tax-free capital gains up to $500K in some circumstances to owners who occupied their homes for two years. Prior to that the gains were tax-free only once in a lifetime.
Call it housing commoditization.
Can you imagine returning to the trend line status quo ante? Hell to pay: at least another $2 trillion in declines coming.
