Just Before the Bubble Burst

It's been nearly 5 years since the real estate bubble burst in this region of Southwest Florida. If it were to happen again, would you know precisely the right time to sell? In other words, was there some magic number, some leading indicator, that tipped us off that the bubble was about to burst in the immediate future? Such a leading indicator could be a valuable tool for those investors and property owners striving to "time the market". And if there was such an indicator that successfully predicted the bubble's pop, wouldn't it have the same potential for identifying the bottom of the cycle, as well as the top? I recently researched this and discovered that yes indeed, this leading indicator does exist. Just before the bubble burst in October 2005, this indicator was shouting "sell" to anyone listening. Unfortunately, few if any were watching this magic number as our collective attention remained fixated on the median sales prices. The Sun Newspapers published the results of my research in todays papers. Click here to read the story.