Hold off on that panic attack; The market's just returning to normal, experts say

The Los Angeles Times quotes professor Raphael Bostic
Diane Wedner, Times Staff Writer
July 23, 2006

Good news for buyers, but not that bad for sellers either.

Although it may appear to some that the sky is falling, Chicken Little can relax for now. As Southern California's real estate boom fades and a more normal market returns, buyers and sellers can take some comfort in what lies ahead.

Industry analysts say the tumbling prices, glut of houses and 8% to 10% interest rates that marked the recession of the early 1990s are nowhere in sight now. The area's strong, diverse economy will help prevent a market freefall similar to the one the region experienced then.

Much has been made recently of the downturn in San Diego County's real estate market, considered a harbinger for the region. Alarm bells went off when the June median home price there fell 1% and the number of sales dropped 24% from the same month a year ago -- a tumble experts attribute largely to conditions peculiar to that area, most pointedly the overbuilding of downtown condominiums.

That is not the case in the rest of Southern California, where in June, prices rose 7.4% from a year ago to a median of $494,000. The number of existing homes and condos sold dropped, but new-home sales, which made up 22% of the market, are showing strong gains, according to DataQuick analysis.

Taking a longer view, Los Angeles County prices rose 14.7% and sales of existing homes fell 13.8% during the first half of 2006 from the same period a year ago. In Orange County, during the same period, prices rose 10.7% and sales of existing homes remained level, while in San Diego County, prices went up 3.7% and sales dropped 12.4%.

In contrast, new-home sales in San Diego County dropped 16.9% during the first half of this year, compared with that period a year ago, while such sales, including condo conversions, soared 25.1% in L.A. County and 34.6% in Orange County.

The reason for such strong new-home sales activity is pent-up demand, a spillover from a half-decade of under-construction. Most big builders, wanting to avoid a repeat of the '90s -- when they were stuck with unsold homes after the recession hit -- now build houses only after preselling them.

With Southern California adding 200,000 to 300,000 new residents a year, the demand for homes won't slow anytime soon, economists say. And until the stock market takes off again -- and no one knows if or when that will happen -- people are expected to keep parking their investment dollars in real estate, at least for now.

So why the 13% sales decline overall? It is more a reflection of a drop from the record number of sales the region has seen in the last few years than an especially slow sales rate this year, Karevoll said. Today, the sales pace is "around the average."

Prices, meanwhile, have continued to rise. The median price of all homes in Orange County during the first half of 2006 was $624,000; in L.A. County, it was $505,000. Regionwide, however, prices in June -- which rose 6% from a year ago to $493,000 -- represent the smallest year-over-year increase since May 2000. The median is expected to continue to set records, but at a slower rate of appreciation than in June.

The move back to a "normal" market is resulting in unnecessary panic among some sellers, who are cutting prices too soon, industry observers say.

"Some sellers' expectations have shifted way out of whack," said Raphael Bostic, an economist and professor at USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "They think their homes should be on the market only for a week or two. But that's not the norm from a historical perspective."

Orange County Real Estate