Fires aren't expected to dampen home sales

But experts see decline ahead in harder hit areas

By Lori Weisberg and Roger ShowleySTAFF WRITERS
October 27, 2007

San Diego County's already fragile real estate market should feel little ill effect from the week's widespread wildfires, but some of the harder hit communities can expect a dip in home sales in the coming months, housing experts say.

While housing sales countywide remain at record lows amid sharply rising foreclosures, it's unlikely that the loss of at least 1,400 homes, as high as that figure sounds, will dampen a market that logs thousands of sales each month, said analyst John Karevoll of DataQuick Information Systems.

“We've done literally dozens of studies on fires and earthquakes and floods and hurricanes, looking at their impacts on the market, and the trend is always that these events don't mean much except in the short term in deferring some sales activity,” said Karevoll, who was evacuated from his home in Running Springs near Lake Arrowhead, where hundreds of homes were destroyed.

In the fire-damaged areas, “I expect much lower sales counts for the next two to six months, and then there will be a period of time where the market reverts to what it was doing before but plays some catch-up.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071027/news_1b27real.html

'The Dumb Money Has Left the Market'

Home sales and median prices dipped again in San Diego County.
By KELLY BENNETT Voice Staff Writer

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007 Fewer homes sold last month in San Diego County than in any August in 15 years, DataQuick Information Systems reported Wednesday.

The 3,104 homes sold marked a 19.4 percent drop in sales volume from August 2006, and a 48 percent drop from the nearly 6,000 homes sold in August 2005.

Many of the deals that closed in August -- and that show up in data now -- began in July or early August, before the squeeze. Still, the same trouble that has plagued the region's home sellers and overleveraged homeowners for more than a year continued last month, with acute trouble in the south and east parts of the county.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/09/13/housing/915dqaug091307.txt

San Diego County Foreclosures

Three articles about San Diego and foreclosures.

Ground Zero in San Diego's Mortgage Mess
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/08/20/news/02foreclosures082007.txt

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/08/20/housing/934family032207.txt

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/08/21/survival/699foreclosurebus082007.txt