On this gray, dreary January Monday — where the weather isn’t even cold enough for snow in the mountains, at least not those elevations reachable by chair lift — I thought I’d pass along this “glass is half full” insight. First the bad news — which is no surprise at all: home values here in King County are now at 2005 levels, plus sales volume remains significantly depressed (by historical standards, putting aside the risk of a “new normal”). Not good. Sorta like the weather.

On the plus side, though, it could be worse. Much worse. Apparently, the hardest hit markets in the nation (Michigan, Nevada, perhaps others) appear to be heading towards total collapse. Yep, that’s right, values continue to depreciate until they reach… zero (or something in that neighborhood). OUCH! That’s neither a buyer’s nor a seller’s market. Rather, its a market from which everyone should extricate themselves as soon as possible. Run for the exits!

Obviously, this is just an opinion, and undoubtedly there are some rosier viewpoints. But I think this article makes a pretty compelling argument that some parts of the national housing market really will never, ever recover — at least not in the lifetime of a potential buyer or seller.