San Diego real estate blog - Peter Toner

Just as you are probably saying right now we too said, “What?” Could it be that the media has finally decided to portray the housing industry in a positive light?? Well now let’s not get ahead of ourselves…notice the key words “Start Your Engines,” as you can see there is no advice to start a road trip!

The gist of the article is this ~ across the nation we are starting to see a drastic reduction of home prices. Finally, sellers are no longer blinded by home values from the past. They are finally starting to see the light… that in order to sell their home they will need to price their home appropriately, according to the right here and now value and dynamics of today’s market.

What got the Wall Street Journal’s writer Brett Arends’ motor running? The report released this past Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors on the statistics of the prices from last quarter. “From Florida to Nevada to the Californian “Inland Empire,” single-family home prices dropped by 20% to nearly 30% in a year,” reads the article. “In certain parts of California, quarter-on-quarter declines are more than 10%.”

To the ears of those in the real estate industry this may not be “good” news, but it is what many feel needs to happen for this “bubble” to finally completely deflate. The market can recover only when home prices are at a value that buyers feel is reasonable and affordable, the prices from yesteryear are irrelevant and that is what many sellers have had a hard time grasping. However, with this latest data from NAR, perhaps we will begin to see values that encourage buyers to actually “start their engines” and get out there and buy!