the shanghai bubble bursts

From this latimes.com article, we find that real estate bubbles can pop just like any other:

For the first time, homeowners here are learning what it means to have an upside-down mortgage — when the value of a home falls below the amount of debt on the property. Recent home buyers are suing to get their money back. Banks are fretting about a wave of default loans.

"The entire industry is scaling back," said Mu Wijie, a regional manager at Century 21 China, who estimated that 3,000 brokerage offices had closed since spring. Real estate agents, whose phones wouldn't stop ringing a year ago, say their incomes have plunged by two-thirds.

Brings a slightly new meaning to the term "Shanghaied"! Of course, this could NEVER happen here in the good old US of A, where housing prices never go down...Spotted via Housing Panic.