Moments ago we showed that despite the rosy headline data reported by the NAR in tabulating its existing home sales, things below the surface for the US housing market were far worse than the soundbites indicate, as the only "stable" segment when it comes to existing home sales is that capturing transactions in the $1 million+ price bucket which corresponds to just 2.4% of all transactions.

Then, we decided to drill down a little more, because while the average number is certainly jarring, when it comes to housing, the US is hardly a homogeneous market, and where every region has its own supply and demand issues. And by and far, the one region that has always stood out the most when it comes to abnormalities in US housing was the "West", largely a name for the state of California: the same place where the housing bubble was spawned back in the early 2000s, and where it first popped some time around 2006.