[jnowlan]

For all these 'bubble' cities (Vancouver, S.F., Seattle, London, ...), I wonder if the bubble ever pops? Are there examples of the prices/avg. income getting so far out of whack that things collapse?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/11/global-hou...

Detroit probably experienced a R.E. bubble in the day...

[lmm]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan)

Everything is still disputed, but Tokyo real estate prices certainly played a part. There was no crash as such, but rather a stagnation.

[matrix]

Yes. I'm told that some people who bought property in Vancouver the early 80's were upside down on their properties for 15 years.

That said, I'm not predicting that outcome myself -- at this point, I would not want to place any sort of bet on that market.

[DrScump]

Oh, sure. In the Bay Area, prices drop substantially after every bubble / recession (early 90s, 2000, mid-2000s).