LOS ANGELES -- California's slowing real estate market hit a dubious milestone in June with the median price of a home in San Diego County once the leader of the nation's housing boom declining year-over-year for the first time in a decade. The county became the first major California real estate market to see that figure fall in annual comparisons since the market began to take off in the mid-1990s.
The median price of homes and condominiums last month in San Diego County was $488,000, down 1 percent from $493,000 for the year-ago period, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate tracking firm. It marked the first year-over-year price drop for the area since July 1996, when the median home price was $169,000, down 1.2 percent from $171,000 in July 1995.
San Diego County has served as a bellwether for the state housing market after becoming one of the first areas in nation where prices took off in the late 1990s.
The annual rate of home appreciation in the county hit double digits in 1998 and peaked at 27.4 percent in November 2002. The median home price peaked last November at $518,000, according to DataQuick.
One factor that has slowed the market was the exodus of speculators, said Raphael Bostic, a professor at the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California.
"For investors ... This is almost a sign that maybe you should get out of the market," Bostic said.
Sheila Anderson, an agent with ZipRealty Inc. in San Diego, said she still sees a lot of interested buyers but concedes they are more likely to take their time making a purchase. "There's just a lot of inventory," she said. "Some sellers still think it is still six months or a year ago, and they're just coming to the realization they need to lower their price to be competitive."
Real estate watchers warned against reading too much into San Diego County's figures or considering it an indicator of things to come for the rest of the state.
"The larger story here is that prices have kind of stabilized," Bostic said. "We're definitely not in a sellers' market anymore."