Median home prices drop below 1989 levels in some parts of So. California
LA Times ^ | June 10, 2009 | By Peter Y. Hong
Posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 9:05:37 AM by Oldeconomybuyer
In parts of Southern California, the housing crash has upended a basic tenet of the American dream: that home values always increase over the long term. Properties in several areas are selling for less than they did 20 years ago, and that's not even counting the effects of inflation.
Losing two decades' worth of gains in a single downturn "has never happened," said UCLA economist Edward Leamer, who has studied local areas during booms and busts. "You're seeing something that's abnormal."
In the 1990s housing bust, "you had a foreclosure here, a foreclosure there. You did not have almost entire neighborhoods being foreclosed," UCLA's Leamer said.
The April median price in Lancaster ZIP Code of 93535, for example, was $87,000. That's down 74% from a $334,500 peak price in 2007. Even worse was the 92410 ZIP Code in the city of San Bernardino, which covers several older neighborhoods. Its $61,000 April median represents an 84% drop from the peak of $370,000 in 2007.
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But, but, but, but, the NREA told me home prices go up forever.
