An email from Betty H. of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, asks, "I realize the real estate bubble has burst. But why have prices come down so much? Was my house ever really worth that much or was this some kind of joke?" "What's the next bubble so I can hide my cash?" Betty H.   Response to Betty H: No, your house was never worth that much. Prices at the top of bubbles are highly unrealistic. The drop in prices after the bubble bursts can be substantial. In the end, the price of your house may even be lower than it is now. As for avoiding bubbles, this is not the correct thing to do. You make the most money by investing in bubbles, as long as you sell around the top.. Anywhere near the top is good enough. It is excessive greed that causes people to lose money in bubbles, and this is what needs to be avoided, not the bubbles themselves. We are about to enter an era of high inflation and you need to protect yourself from that. The preferred choices are gold and silver, oil and alternative energy, agricultural products and farmland, and art, antiques and collectibles. At some point the inflation will be over though and it will be necessary to sell these investments and move on. No investment goes up forever. No investment is good forever. Twenty years is a good rule of thumb. So these investments should be going up until around 2020, after that you need to cash out and move on. Daryl Montgomery Organizer, New York Investing meetup  http://investing.meetup.com/21