Originally Posted by ewitte

Prices have not dipped much here and they keep saying on the radio we were in one of the lucky areas of the country. Yet until recently every time I went out for a walk with the dog there was another house for sale and quite a few that were up more than a year. I've seen 3-4 sell recently but it appears a lot of the others just eventually decided not to sell.

Those crazy prices over in CA were part of the problem in the first place my house was $140k new in 2001 for 2381sf. A friend of mine just came back from somewhere in CA where some of his friends with $800k homes can't get even 400k now.

Originally Posted by harveyc

ewitte, prices across California vary a great deal. None of the prices themselves are crazy or a cause of the problem. As Andrew pointed out, the problem has been people buying more than they could afford and borrowing more money than they can repay. I know of poeple with million dollar homes which are paid for and I know people who bought a home for $150,000 with more owed on them than they are worth and now out of work. Which person in this case was crazy?

California is a very large state with diverse housing and climates. I had someone recently tell me that my climate was warmer because I lived in California. California often is the hottest spot (Death Valley) and coldest spot (Truckee) in the USA. Generalizations are often more wrong than right.