CA Realtors: Conflicting Reports on the Homefront

Once again, the predictions are ambivalent and potentially way off. But with its just-released 2009 forecast, the California Association of Realtors is raising and dashing hopes across the state. On the one hand: while home prices are expected to continue falling, sales are expected to jump more than 12% next year (likely in part due to all those foreclosures sweet deals). On the other: pricier abodes, especially those in the Bay Area, are expected to lose value and move slower on the market, in part due to the credit crunch coming down especially hard on "jumbo loans" of more than three-quarters of a million. (Pro tip: in the economic end-times, it's probs not the best idea to be taking out a "jumbo loan" anyway.) Take this all with a grain of salt. The Association's predictions for 2008 -- that prices would fall a bit, but sales would tank -- turned out to be completely wrong. Sales actually went up this year by 12%, too -- but prices dropped by almost a third. Oh, also? They say California's recession could end by the summer of 2009. Jumbo loans, here we come...
· California Realtors forecast lower home prices, rising sales in 2009 [LA Times]
· Prices, sales of Bay Area high-end homes may fall next year, Realtor group predicts [San Jose Mercury News]For more stories from Curbed SF, go to sf.curbed.com.

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