There is also the "slinky effect" to take into account when it comes to housing. For a **long** time after the sub-prime mortgage melt-down along with the recession, domestic home building went down. Realtors and economist worried for quite some time that when things picked back up, there would be a shortage because while we tend to see houses as being sturdy, just like everything else, houses need to be replaced. During the slow time, more houses went down, then went up. Now the demand is up but the supply is lagging.

Also, don't count the Kurds out so quickly. They, as a people, took all the gear and training the U.S. provided making their Persmerga units probably some of the best combat units in the area. The question, as I see it, is will Iraqi Kurds be able to keep their nationalist hotheads in check because if not, they people will push for the Greater Kurdisatn which includes Iranian and Turkish territor.

OTOH, I think both countries would be better in the long run to just give up that territory rather than avoid a long, protacted civil war with a bunch of people who have been living in the biggest insurgent laboratory ever created.