by Calculated Risk on 10/11/2006 08:26:00 PM

The San Diego Union reports: Local home prices continue to fall

San Diego County home prices dropped last month by nearly 4.5 percent, double the rate in August and the biggest year-over-year decline since 1993, DataQuick Information Systems reported Wednesday.

The $476,000 overall median was down $6,000 from August and off $22,000 from September last year, the biggest year-over-year dollar reduction DataQuick has reported since it began keeping local records in 1988.

The latest overall figure represents a drop of $42,000 or 8.1 percent below the all-time peak of $518,000 reached just 11 months ago.

Click on graph for larger image.

Dashed blue line on graph is current price level.

Looked at another way, with housing back to its early-2005 levels, many sellers who bought since then will be lucky to get what they paid for their property at the peak of the five-year buying boom.

Actually prices are back to the July 2004 level.

Meanwhile, sales continued their two-year slide with the total off by more than 35 percent to 3,207 transactions, the biggest year-over-year downturn since 1991. It was the 27th consecutive decline for the category on a year-over-year basis. The total was off 12.5 percent from August, a typical seasonal change, past trends show.