Sorry, that number above is supposed to be $2,500,000! We are discombobulated by the gall.

Response to post '#5: It's so true with industries that are so location-dependent. If two or three restaurants fail in the same location, it's pretty hard to peddle it as a restaurant. Best, Don Bauder

Response to post #s 1-3: One reason high-end home sellers haven't gotten the message is that they are out of touch with what is going on in the economy. The listing broker should be in touch with reality, but if the seller won't wake up, the price isn't going to move. Best, Don Bauder

Well, you wouldn't know there's been a 40% drop in home prices if you were looking for a small house near (but not at) the beach in La Jolla. Some broker at Coldwell Banker who calls herself a "historical homes specialist" just keeps on re-listing a 2-bedroom 1920's house at $250,000 -- and that's with the original kitchen! No marble, no granite, and linoleum on the floor! What a scam.

Sorry, that number above is supposed to be $2,500,000!

For some reason these high end listings just are not getting the messege, the market has chnaged.

I would estimate thta 95%+ of all high end homes ($1,000,000 plus) are way over market price-and all they do is sit on the market.

I was folllowing a high end home in Malibu that was listed at $15 million, and that was at least double the market.....it was on the market for over 18 months-finally took the hme off the market-no offers.

Saw a similar REO (bank owned) Malibu home that has been listed at $5.3 million, and it has been on the market 6 months with no buyer.

I think these fools are just hoping they will get some oil sheik that just fell off the turnip truck-it's not happening.

Candy Spelling has the Spelling mansion (biggest home in CA) on the market at $150 million-which is at least DOUBLE what it will sell for. This is 2009, not 2006.

The listing broker should be in touch with reality, but if the seller won't wake up, the price isn't going to move. Best, Don Bauder

By dbauder

Welcome back Don.

The price won't move, and as we see with over priced high end homes, they don't move either.

When I sold investment properties the #1 priority was to get the seller to price the property at a market rate-a realistic market rate. That was always hard ebcause sellers all tghink that their property is the special one that someone will over pay for.

Once an over priced proprty sits on the market more than a couple of months it gets a "used" label attached to it and harms the chances of selling.

Why is it so often the case that these declines in home prices are reported in the media as bad news? The bad news came a few years ago when home prices rose so high that only a few families could afford to buy anything. Was that reported as good news? Actually, it often was!

But one person's bad news is good news for another. If you are hoping to buy a home in San Diego County, these declines are reason for optimism. And the declines aren't finished. More foreclosures loom, and there remains a huge backlog of unsold and underutilized homes needing to be moved. Eventually the sellers will get realistic with their pricing and the properties will move.

Years ago we had episodes of home price runups here, such as in about 1980 (killed by astronomical mortgage interest rates) and again in 1989. For years afterward sellers priced their homes based on what similar homes had sold for at the top of the cycle. And those homes often sat on the market for years while they deteriorated and lost whatever "curb appeal" they ever had. Just remember that the RE industry always says to "Make an offer." If you really would like to have that La Jolla cottage with the antique kitchen and its linoleum on the floor, offer a price you can tolerate. Who knows? They might take it!

Response to post #7: Very good points. Affordability is improving. Maybe media should focus more on that. A coming wave of foreclosures is likely to make SD homes even cheaper. Best, Don Bauder

Why is it so often the case that these declines in home prices are reported in the media as bad news?

Mainly because it causes property taxes to decrease, as well as equity.

I agree it is good to have home values crash when there is a market bubble like we had, but it still causes problems as the over leverage starts to re balance itself.

It is painful medicine, but we need to take our medicine-something public employees/the gov have not gotten the messege about................ yet.

Response to post #9: You are right. The U.S. -- indeed, the world -- is deleveraging. Policy makers are trying the old Keynesian remedies to get consumers to borrow and splurge again. But I doubt that they will do it. It would actually be healthier for the country to go back to a consumer savings rate of 12 percent (up from zero a couple of years ago). There would be a lot of pain getting there, but we would be better off for the long pull. Best, Don Bauder