Home Inequity: San Diego Median Home Prices Crash to Five-Year Low
San Diego's median price was the lowest since February 2003's $346,750 and represented a 32.4 percent drop from the all-time high of $517,500 in November 2005, DataQuick records show. It's a stunning drop in home equity by any means, and when you put it in the context of the failures of AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and other institutions that rode the risky home loan frenzy of recent years, you begin to understand the grave economic implications.
So, to go along with high gas and food prices, local homeowners - or at least the ones who bought at the height of the housing boom - have seen their investments shrink to nothing. If they haven't defaulted already. And the silver lining in all of this? AMD DataQuick President John Walsh states that the figures may signal “tentative signs” of a bottoming out of the real estate slump, at least in some inland markets.
Sure hope so, because things can't get much worse than this. What do you think?
Comments
I’ve been a Realtor for over 20 years. I, like most, never believed it could get this bad and now it seems it will get worse. Nothing will reverse the trend until income, savings (downpayments) and FICO scores are in line with the 1970’s requirements for lending.
Home purchase price is annual income times 3, 20% downpayment, good credit history.
A hard lesson is being learned but not a bad lesson in the long run.
I jsut bought a property. Am i an idiot.
The SD market was desperately in need of a correction. I”m sorry it had to come at the expense of people who bought at the peak, but prices are actually down to where average, prudent middle class people can afford to buy homes – as in the kind of people who take out 30-year mortgages and pay them!
At 3 times annual salary, home prices still have a long way to drop to become affordable for most San Diego workers. I don’t suppose we can expect salaries to increase anytime soon, in fact, we probably should be thanking our lucky stars we are still employed. The lesson to be learned – don’t pay more than you can afford for anything – homes, clothing, food, cable tv….
Inigo, instead of making a hot button to McCain, who actually warned about this 3 years ago, let’s include Bill Clinton in this debacle, since it was his administrations influence that forced Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae to provide mortgages to low income buyers (including illegal aliens) with NO money down and No ability to pay the mortgages, which you and I taxpayers are eating now. Who made the SECOND MOST money in cash contributions from Freddie mac and Fannie Mae? Barack Obama. I don’t think you’ll be fair enough to print this, as you censored another civil and polite post by me in the past.
I agree with GG1000, T, and Jeff. The San Diego market is still too high. If sellers want to start moving their inventory, they need to lower their prices. I see too many functionally obsolete, 2 bedroom, 2 bath homes still listed for almost half a million. Only a fool would buy at those prices. Don’t you know it’s going to be difficult to get a loan in the future! And please don’t but the burden of this bail-out on the backs of taxpayers (like me) who bought only what they could afford and are making their payments. I don’t want to make some idiot’s mortgage payment for them.
Prices are now where average middle income earner can afford it? Think again. Today, only 21% of San Diegans can afford to buy a house. Houses in San Diego are STILL way above what they are actually valued at and way over what they should be priced. I am still waiting for the prices to fall, and no doubt, they will. I rented because I could not afford those rediculous prices. All those fools who did not rent, but bought when they could not have afforded it, TOO F-ING BAD that u lost all that money! It is your own darn fault! Bail out RENTERS who were not greedy but rented apartments!