A bottom for prices??

There's been a few articles in the median lately about the bottom being here. The leveling off of prices and even a few increases are seen as an indication the bottom is in. It's nice marketing but I'm not sure anyone really believes it. Over at Piggingtons they put up a nice chart of the last real estate bust we suffered here in Cali. The chart shows the price declines from the early 90's bust. You can clearly see that there was a "spring bounce" pretty much every year. Even in 1993 which was the worst year of that bust there was a tiny increase in the spring. Those bumps did not stop the fall or indicate a bottom or a turnaround. All the articles spouting off about a bottom or a turn around are optimistic at best. Could it be the bottom? Sure it could, just as easily as it could be the half way point. We won't know when the bottom hits until years after it happens, and it's not going to hit every market at the same time.


The indicated points are the spring/summer increases in median for San Diego.