What a housing bubble burst sounds like: "The market isn't soft. It isn't even slow. It's dead."

Pop. It's over. Ding dong, the housing bubble is dead. Even David Lereah can't lie his way out of this one. Now comes the panic. Thanks 200 mbps for the link. From New York:

It's over.

The crazed phase of frenetic home buying in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties has screeched to a halt — leaving some industry experts wondering if the sound they hear now is the housing bubble bursting.

"The market isn't soft. It isn't even slow. It's dead," said Liz Rosenblatt, an agent with Fuerst & Fuerst Inc., a real estate firm in New Hempstead.

Scott Stiefvater, a broker-owner at Stiefvater Real Estate Inc. in Pelham, said prospective homeowners are still looking at properties. "They just aren't buying," he said. "I'm getting a little worried."

After nearly seven years of unprecedented strength, the housing market has taken an unexpectedly steep slide, real estate professionals throughout the Lower Hudson Valley concur. It's gone from multiple offers for more than asking price just hours after properties were listed for sale to no offers at all, even after price reductions.

At least some homeowners, however, are panicking. Worried that increased supply will lead to rapid price deceleration, they are rushing to put their homes up for sale. Some of them think the market will only get worse, real estate agents said.