Housing: The magic number is 417.

This morning I came across an article basically saying that if you are looking to sell your home, it could take until 2009 to find the right buyer at the right price. The statement came from Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), who expects prices to fall another 2-4 percent next year and a 22 percent drop in new home sales and a 12 percent drop in existing home sales.

While the article came mostly of deepening worries about the housing market, the final paragraph shocked me...it reads

"There's one group of home buyers, home sellers and loan originators who will have an easier time of it than everyone else: those dealing with "anything that's conventional and conforming," Duncan said. In other words, 30-year fixed rate mortgages for borrowers with good credit under the "jumbo" cutoff of $417,000."

From CNN Money