Thornberg leaves UCLA forecast

Chris Thornberg, the economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast who kept warning of a serious housing bubble, has left the school and is starting up his own consulting firm called Beacon Economics. He's been warning of a seriously overvalued housing market for over a year - often at odds with economists who predicted a benign "soft landing." He's not changed his tune - Thornberg told me this morning that prices should start to fall by the end of the year, the next stage in what's been a months-long real estate decline. How long and how severe? Thornberg isn't sure, but he did say "It's going to be a tough economy."