High Home Prices in North County May Forecast Drop, Not Rebound

By Erik Anderson / Environment Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published June 12, 2007 at 1:52 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

A record average sale price for homes in San Diego's North County may not mean the housing market is rebounding. In fact, one economist suggests just the opposite may be true.

A record average sale price for homes in San Diego's North County may not mean the housing market is rebounding. In fact, one economist suggests just the opposite may be true.

Ryan Radcliff works for the UCLA Anderson Forecast . He says the $655,000 median home price in the realtor's survey reflects what's going on in the entire Southern California region. Radcliff says the entry level home market is drying up.

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Radcliff : If the lower end of the market is seeing a bigger sales contraction than the upper end, then it’s no surprise that you'd see this sort of upward pull on the median price.

Radcliff says the current situation is similar to what happened during the state's last housing slump. Home prices in the late 80's and early 90's continued to rise for a few years even though sales were down dramatically. Eventually home prices dropped too.