In some areas, Homes selling for less than 1989 prices

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cheaphomes10-2009jun10,0,4802553.story

Median home prices drop below 1989 levels in some parts of Southland

Properties in several areas are selling for less than they did 20 years ago, and that's not including inflation. Some first-time buyers are nabbing houses for less than what their parents paid.

By Peter Y. Hong
June 10, 2009

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.


The reversal is a bonanza for some first-time buyers. They're nabbing houses for less than what their parents paid in the late 1980s, jumping into a real estate market that has become a kind of economic time machine.

To return to the past, take a stroll down Mulberry Avenue in Lancaster. John A. Beatrice, 55, bought his spacious two-story Spanish-style house there brand-new for $120,000 in 1989. It was a price he could comfortably afford, and he planned on staying through retirement, so he wasn't worried about price swings.

"I always knew real estate goes like this," said the aerospace engineer, moving his hand in an undulating motion like bell curves on a graph.


But he never imagined his neighborhood would drop off the charts. In April, a slightly larger home two doors away sold for $66,500. That's just over half the $130,000 it went for new in 1992. In 2005, that house sold for $330,000.

Beatrice's 29-year-old daughter is now shopping for Lancaster houses priced lower than when she was a kid.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Lancaster has to be one of the least desirable places to live in all

of California. Particularly with gas prices going up. I would rather be dead than have to live in Lancaster.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Now, that's a strong statement!

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. People actually commute to LA from there. It's impossible.

The wind is always blowing, it's as hot as hell & it's a wasteland.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. I know. During the height of the housing prices, I made the drive to see if I could tolerate it

Made the drive on a Saturday. Found it intolerable! Thank goodness, or I would be living there now in an overpriced home.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. Victorville/Hesperia holds that honor. SO glad I don't live there anymore.

[Lerkfish]

2. IMHO, I think this is the comeuppance of bloated real estate prices in the area

housing has always been OBSCENELY overpriced in california.

It could not be sustainable in a bad economy for long.

[Ikonoklast]

4. The real estate prices are returning to rational levels.

Some of the prices paid for housing in the SoCal market were unsustainable, and most anyone could see that a crash was in the making.

The upward price curve was approaching infinity.

As bad is it may be for someone that got caught buying at the top of the market, and lost any equity they may have had, it is a bargain for those with cash money or good credit.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Yeah, even at 100% financing, a 66K mortgage is $500.

[Ikonoklast]

9. This place looked nice.

http://www.homes.com/listing/88432480/7309_Sunnyslope_Dr_LANCASTER_CA_9353

Too little a lot for my tastes, but the price isn't obscene for the size of the house.

But, then again, the commute distance/time is certainly a very real factor. I suppose if you worked nearby, say, less than forty miles one way instead of the seventy to downtown LA, would definitely factor into any decision to buy that far out.

But, a place like that, in NE Ohio where I'm at, would be priced comparatively, but with a larger lot, say, at least .8 acre.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. You have to live in LA to realize the horror of the drive. At rush hour, we inch to the freeway

on ramp. The drive from the out suburbs are soul killing.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Been there, done that on business.

In a seventy-two foot long commercial vehicle.

Snuck into LA very early in the AM, and snuck out before 1500.

Not for me, either. I couldn't do that on a day-in, day-out basis.

My commute is 23 miles one-way, but I only do it once a week. And I drive from one outer-ring suburb to another, without having to enter any major metropolitan areas. Takes thirty minutes, tops.

[LeftyMom]

12. My Dad's house in South Sacramento would sell for less than he paid in 1987,

were he foolish enough to sell right now, which he's not. And assuming anybody even put a bid in, which would be unlikely considering there are foreclosures just like it (aaaah, tract housing...) available on the same block.

Up the street from him a 5 BR house with a pool went for $170K, and that's one of the nicest houses in the neighborhood and on one of the larger lots as well. Two years ago the basic 3/2 tract houses were going for about $400K on the same street.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. I'd heard that the sacramento housing market was hit hard

[LeftyMom]

14. Very.

Really cute older fixers in marginal neighborhoods are going for $25-50K.