All Real Estate is local of course. But generally speaking in the areas that I follow residential RE (especially lower-end) bottomed 6-8 months ago.
Im actually in the market to buy, not today but sometime in 2010-2011, everyone I talk to says you have to buy now, well you know my opinion on this, however the only reason why I think buying now, not for investment purposes but for actually moving and staying put for at least 7-10 years is that mortgage rates in my opinion are going back to 6-7% over the next year. Maybe even higher, so its like a catch 22, buy now with a 30 yr fixed at around 5-5.5% or wait another year or 2 and get something 15-20% cheaper but pay a higher mortgage rate. I have been looking around and have seen prices on the average drop between 15-20% over the last year in certain areas im looking, one area they just converted it from apartments to condos and were asking at the time just 6 months around $315k-$360k, those same apartments, which there were 5 to look at the day I went are going for $260k-$299k. I use trulia and they have a feature where you can see price reductions and I can tell you there are huge price reductions going on, I know something in the $300k range today will be below $250k sometime over the next 12 months. Patience is key in this market and I know housing is still coming down, once we get the next wave of foreclosures we will see another significant push lower in housing prices.
I should note that prices went up a bit on homes which could be purchased with fha loans. the high end of the market - is just about flashing imminent destruction signals.
Texas RE market is fine. A few bumps here and there. Overall Home value (Loft value in my case) in San Antonio continue to rise in a slow pace. RE is local. Cali is not coming back anytime soon. There is so much cheap RE being bought for Pennies on the dollar, that increase is reflecting the "VALUE" increase on %. So, the home was at its peak X and then fell -2X but now, in one monthy it as risen.00000001% of X Fom the lows. So you get a spike in % value raised from the low. Big deal. Cali is no where near coming back in the RE arena. Not for a decade or more.
San Diego hasn't regained any value. It hit bottom and has stagnated there for the past couple of months.
I think you're wrong. Rents in alot of areas are now more expensive than if you buy. A few miles from where i live there are condos that are selling for 35k to 50k and the rents there are $700+ per month. There are houses in some areas of sacramento that are around 100k that can be rented out for 800 to 1000 per month. The newer homes that can be rented out for 1500 per month are selling for about 200k. Even in San francisco, you could break even on cash flow now with 30% down
Inflation is here? May be. But where is the money flowing from? There is no credit. There are no bonuses. There are no raises, there are no sign on bonuses, there are fewer and fewer jobs. I do not know of any other source of money available to common man. Even if houses in some regions are a great deal, why buy a house because the City will squeeze every penny out of you in the name of property taxes.
single family detached homes in North county san diego rose. sfd median prices when form 190 to 197 in April to May. Per north san diego county association of realtors homedex report. stats were similar for many other measures. However - the high is looking very weak. In my opinion rose because of lack of inventory.