and for a monthly read I'll add this site.
October 2007
http://www.contraryinvestor.com/2007archives/mooct07.htm"Contain This...We all know far too well by now that late last year and early this year, many a Fed and Treasury official were proclaiming from on high that sub-prime mortgage credit problems were contained. The party line was that problems in that particular credit sector neck of the woods were not about to spread or cause further problems in any other part of the domestic, let alone, global credit markets. Riiiiiiiiight....
The Low Down…As we’re sure you noted in the charts above, the NAHB survey as of the latest reading is sitting at record lows for its two-plus decade history. We must be near a very meaningful low for housing, no? That’s right, no. We’re going to leave you with one last chart that may indeed be one of THE most important data relationships of the moment. One of the reasons we are so convinced that that there is much more to go on the downside for housing, and why we’re convinced no one should be underestimating the impact of housing on the broader US economy of the moment, is price. Or more correctly, lack of meaningful price reconciliation in residential real estate up to this point that we believe is surely still to come.
Below we’re looking at the long-term relationship between the median family home price and median family income. Pretty darn simple stuff here. Level of housing prices to income. Can it get any more basic than that?(see link for chart)
....The data used to construct the above chart tells us either one of two things plays out dead ahead. Either housing prices fall relatively meaningfully from here, or US domestic wages rise relatively meaningfully from here to get this relationship closer to being in line with historical experience. Which do you think will be the outcome ahead? If mortgage credit affordability is an issue, can it really be that housing prices are not the issue? Of course not. Although consumers have done a pretty good job hanging in there, so to speak, up until now with housing prices softening over the prior year and one half plus, the major test really lies ahead.
At least since 1970, every single housing cycle saw the median housing price to income ratio fall back to what we’ve calculated as the average for the entire period shown. So this one will be different? We beg to differ. If we had to guess, we’d say a trip in this ratio to the 350-375% level is an extremely reasonable expectation before the current cycle has concluded, but we need to be prepared for reconciliation to go a whole lot lower. That’s another 10-15% decline in median family home prices from here, at best. Can we suggest 2008 could be quite the interesting year for housing prices in the US? Can we also suggest 2008 could be quite the interesting year for the broader US economy? No wonder Bernanke chose to throw a 50 basis point rate cut ball as the first pitch of the monetary inflation world series." 
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