Housing prices continue to drop like a stone from their absurdly high levels of just a couple of years ago, more here in the Inland Empire than nearly anywhere else in the country.  There are some good signs from the market, in a ghoulish kind of way; seventy percent of home sales in the region are for foreclosed properties, which means that the system is still sort of working, and working out some of the pricing problems that have frozen other capital markets.  I mean, bad for the people who’ve lost their foreclosed houses, but at least the foreclosure sales are making a market and putting a price on those formerly overvalued assets.  There’s still, though, a huge inventory of empty unsold (or unrented; the rental market has cratered, too) properties in the area, with more coming online as projects that were built on spec during the boom are completed.  Lots of people are living in houses that are worth less than the mortgage they’re paying on it.  If you’ll pardon the awful pun, this is the default position now for homeowners in the Inland Empire.