Yikes! Check out the new February DataQuick housing data. But oh yes, let me warn you first that this isn’t for the faint of heart.
DataQuick’s freshest stats show this will certainly be the 29th straight month where buyers bought fewer O.C. homes than the year-ago period as mid-February O.C. home sales were off 49% from a year ago. If that pace for the 22 business days ended Feb. 13 holds for the full month, this month will mark the steepest year-over-year sales drop in DataQuick’s books that date to 1988. Pricing, off 14% from a year ago, [now at $524,500] runs at early 2004 levels.
Sorry, but this thought keeps popping up in my head: YIKES!! Home prices are fallen 14% over the last year? And home sales have tumbled down 49% over the last year? Is this a sign of more hard times to come?
What do you think about these terrible housing numbers? Is this yet another sign of the weak OC economy? Does this mean no chance of recovery any time soon? Can home sales & home prices fall some more? And if so, how will this affect people working in real estate-related industries (mortgage, construction, interior design, furniture, etc.)?
So what’s up… Or more accurately, what’s down with real estate? And how long can we expect to stay down? Go ahead and have your say.
Andrew, I think the question isn’t whether we’ll be in recession – we’re already there – but how deep this particular rabbit hole goes. Are we talking severe recession, outright depression, or – unlikely – a mild 2001-type downturn?
An excellent site that you should bookmark, if you’ve not already done so, is Irvine Housing Blog.