For anyone who thought it was a good idea in the mid 2000s to buy that weekend getaway condo or a second home near their favorite vacation spot, I have some bad news for ya… it probably would’ve been a better idea to wait.

As you can see (per Zillow.com data), the no brainer real estate investments of just four years ago have lost much of their bubblicious value.

Photos of the condo weren’t available, but based on it’s location and the inventory glut of foreclosure/bank owned property in its vicinity, I doubt it’s worth the $30,000 price tag now, and was no where near the $93,000 price tag it commanded in 2006. Now that the double dip in real estate is upon us, lower end condos like these will provide a real time litmus test to quantify just how severe the correction will eventually be.

It also serves as an excellent, albeit extreme, example of how the lower end real estate and creative financing market got hit the hardest. Thanks to liar loans, stated income loans, NINJA loans (no income, no job, no assets), and other exotic interest only mortgage products, financing/loans like these caused this small beach area condo to lose 68% of it’s value upon the last sale price ($93,000 to $30,000 in foreclosure).

Not surprisingly, this is why many low to middle income homeowners now find themselves underwater: amateur real estate investors and anyone who couldn’t buy a home in the traditional manor (with money down), took advantage of the credit bubble and pushed the entire real estate market up to levels never seen before. When credit markets tightened and the Greater Fool game was up, few banks (if any) were willing to keep the market supported at elevated prices and the bottom fell out. And now Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (e.g. you and me) are left to clean up the mess.