San Luis Obispo County homes prices plunge 9 percent in May

June 16, 2011

Prices of new homes in San Luis Obispo County dropped 9 percent in May from the same month a year ago even though there was a 25 percent increase in sales volume, according to the real estate research firm DataQuick.

The median sales price of a new home in SLO County was $355,000, down from $390,000 in May 2010.

Statewide, in May, home prices fell 10.4 percent and sales volume fell 13.3 percent from a year ago. The median price for a home in California was $249,000.

For all residential sales in San Luis Obispo County, the price dropped 2.9 percent from May 2010 through May 2011.

Foreclosures and short sales made up more than half of the state’s resale market in May with 35.5 percent of homes sold being foreclosures and 17.9 percent short sales, in which a bank agrees to allow a home to be sold for less than is owed on it.

Correction: The drop of 9 percent was for new home sales. For all residential sales in San Luis Obispo County, the price dropped 2.9 percent from May 2010 through May 2011.


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Thank God I live at a destination. Home Sweet Home. Ah, the fresh air and star filled skies have me giving thanks every moment of the day and night. I don’t care how high or how low the value goes on my house. I am here to stay til the good Lord decides to take me. Plus we are soon going to have a top-notch shopping center that will bring thousands of dollars to the coffers.

Hope I live to see it. Atascadero, my home………..not a care in the world except where the hell am I going to get the money for food, taxes, utilities, and gas. I don’t know. Oh ya, I will be a greeter at Walmart.


…it might have been cute the first 3 or 4 replies to various stories here, but now it’s just getting old. Liven it up a bit, be creative if you can.


Please. You lose your job like the thousands of others in this county who have lost theirs and you won’t be able to make your mortgage payments either and you’ll be gone and your house will become shadow inventory like the thousands already in this county.


The state is 25 billion dollars in the red. The county is millions in the red. The country is trillions in the red. Major budget cuts coming which means more lost jobs–and yes, those cushy over paid government jobs. Couple that with millions of shadow inventory still held by the banks and —-well, you get the picture.


About the only people who can talk like you are trust fund babies and rich retired people from LA or San Francisco who sold their ridiculously over priced home to buy an over priced home here with cash so they aren’t feeling the pain.


So if the values of houses are lower, why isn’t the cost of the Los Osos sewer lower by the same amount? I don’t seem to get it.


Age in the late 50’s. Never been able to ‘afford’ a home purchase. Did make some offers over the years and was always outbid by ‘buyers’ that turned out to be realtors. Worked with a guy that quit and got a job as an appraiser. He had no prior experience in that field. Just read that a component to the real estate bubble/scam, was inflated appraisals at the behest of the lenders.


Reasonable, intelligent folks are of the opinion that housing prices have a waaaays to fall. Of course, if you own an overpriced property, you don’t want to believe that.


We do seem to do quite well living in a dream.


No, this info is incorrect.


According to the DataQuick site, the 25% Y-to-Y sales volume increase was for New Homes where it went up from 20 solds in May 2010 to 25 in May 2011. That’s such a low number of solds that comparing Y-to-Y changes is pretty meaningless.


For Resale detached, it reports a 4.2% sales increase. From 212 to 221 homes sold and a 0.3% decrease in Median Home Price Y-to-Y. The 9% decline is for the New Homes category too.


The upswing in volume was likely do to investment income (i.e. over-paid Cal Poly professors buying up more future rentals). A better metric to use for home sales are first-time buyers and other fully financed buyers; maybe with a comparison to homes bought using 20% or more down (or in full).


Homes are still several hundred thousand over-priced; once people realize our Economy of Oz is nothing but smoke. Who is moving into the area? How many more doctors, lawyers, over-paid city officials can one town take?


It will only get worse, as the dollar deflates and people start to cohabitate en masse for survival.


r0y…what is a “first-time home buyer”? I’ve heard of that mystical creature. In all seriousness, I totally agree with your assessment. There is a big difference between home sales that are driven by growth in the economy and home sales that are driven by investment capital. I too would be interested in seeing the total home sales purchased by buyers financing more than 80% of the home value. For instance, I can’t think of a single friend, acquaintance, etc. that has moved to a different home in the past two to three years. My opinion is that home sales will not pick up again until everyone is convinced that the market has hit the absolute bottom.


Yeah, but let’s just keep adding more costs on to homeownership. See if the state can force the rest of us out of our houses.