San Diego Home Prices Rebound Slightly in April
San Diego Union Tribune
By Mike Freeman
Home prices in San Diego stopped their slide in April after falling seven of the prior eight months, thanks mostly to the start of the summer home buying season.
...Still, the trend of falling prices -- coupled with continued high unemployment and a weak economic recovery -- has raised concerns about lingering weakness in the housing market. So news that prices actually increased in April is seen as positive.
"What we're seeing is pretty flat house prices," said Gary Painter, a USC professor and director of research at the university's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "I think the only encouragement we can gain out of it is it didn't have a big decline."
...While a flood of foreclosures remains a problem in a view cities such as Las Vegas, the overall housing market is not suffering much from over-supply, said Painter, the USC professor.
But demand is going to take a while to return.
"Until the job market improves consistently over a three month period or so, you're probably not going to see any big changes in terms of house prices," he said.