wait.............sellers and agents are resistant to lowering their prices. My guess is, if they can hold on, these people are hoping the government money will help buoy the local RE market. Unemployment is way up still!!! Houses are sitiing for months. Unheard of in this area. Take a look at the Trulia MLS for PV and you will see many large price reductions. 2 houses have dropped their prices over one million dollars!!! $100000 reductions are common Over 5 houses in "pre-forelosure" Make sure you make the appraisal part of your agreement because they are not coming in. My guess is that tis time next year July 2010 will be safer to buy. Jumbo loans are still difficult to get and this type of loan is the bread and butter in PV

Hi Eli,

Pricing trends in Ladera are pretty flat when compared with last year. After a flurry of listing activity early in the year, the pace of new listings has settled down more towards the 1-2 listings per month range.

What seems to be a little different than last year is the number of homes coming on that are "tired." It feels to me like this year has seen a dearth of nicely updated homes hitting the market. The big exception to this is 880 La Mesa (pending with a list price of $2.98M). If you take out this listing, then the average list price drops substantially.

As for the home with the most potential right now, 415 Conil ($1.995M) is dated inside, but it is a big 3 bedroom at over 3000 square feet and has tremendous views and a fair bit of flat land. It sold for $2M even back in February and my understanding is that the buyers never moved in.

Of course, if you are looking in the $2.3M range, you may want to check out the options in Westridge (PV). There have been several listings in the low $2s on an acre plus, many with views. You won't get the same neighborhood feel as Ladera, but you generally get more land, privacy, etc.

Back to Ladera, I haven't seen prices actually drop. The decision to purchase is likely to be more driven by what is available. You may wait 6 months for "your house" or it may come on the market tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I'm a Ladera resident and love it!

Feel free to contact me if you'd like more information.

Best Regards,

John Barman
Coldwell Banker
john.barman@cbnorcal.com