SoCal Home Prices Plunge 27%
The residential real estate market in Southern California remains in critical condition. According to an article by Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times, home prices in SoCal plunged 27% from May of last year. In addition, the rising price of gasoline is compounding the problem for most of the more outlying areas.
Christopher Leinberger of the Brookings Institution is quoted in the article, “Under the old model we have lived with for the past 50 years, you could drive away from major employment concentrations until you could qualify for a house because cheap energy costs made it possible. Now as energy prices go up, the housing prices out there on the fringe take a major hit.”
A survey by DataQuick Information Services reported that the median home sale price in six Southern California counties sank to $370,000 in May, down from $505,000 the previous May.
