The Union Tribune has this follow-up on San Diego home sales. "Home prices in San Diego County continued to cool off last month with a gain of 2.5 percent over January 2005 level. But new-home prices took the sharpest month-to-month dive ever recorded by DataQuick for the San Diego market, a loss that was not so much good news for homebuyers as it was a reflection of building-industry marketing practices."

"The big drop in the new-home category pulled down the overall county median price to $490,000. That was $26,000 lower than December and $28,000 below the all-time high in November. The January median for new housing came in at $435,000, a record $104,500 less than in December and $22,000 less than in January 2005. The month-over-month decline represented a near-record 19.5 percent drop, the biggest since July 1997's 24 percent change."

"John Karevoll said the drop probably reflects two factors: the typical rush by big builders to close sales of new homes in December, before the start of the new year, which is followed by a lull in January; and the continuing sales of low-cost condo conversions."

"Eastern Chula Vista's ZIP code 91913, which includes parts of Eastlake and Otay Ranch, was one of several areas that best showed January's erratic market performance. There, on the resale side compared with January 2005, the median price for single-family homes rose 12.1 percent to $656,000 on 22 sales while the median price for condos dropped 9.5 percent to $405,000 on 13 sales."

"But in new housing, the median price for the area dropped a whopping 48.6 percent, plummeting from $725,500 last year to $373,250 this year. The precipitous drop in new home prices..appeared to be influenced by a large condo conversion project that recently began sales in Otay Ranch."

"Several other ZIP codes also registered significant declines in home values, but the reason could not be linked to the impact of a single project. In the La Mesa-Mount Helix area, for example, the median price for single-family resale homes fell 9.4 percent, from $526,350 a year ago January to $477,000 last month. Real estate agents suggest that the drop in prices reflects a dose of reality that sellers in the area are forced to face."

"'Prices were higher than what they should have been,' said La Mesa agent Carol Bostwick. 'But now I'm seeing properties sitting on the market for 60 days and price reductions from $30,000 to $70,000. It may be that people are saying, 'I want to get what my neighbor got two years ago' for their house.'"

"Scripps Ranch showed an even larger year-over-year price decline of 14 percent to stand at $705,000, down from $820,000 a year earlier. Real estate agent Charmaine Vance believes that Scripps Ranch, which has benefited from a large runup in prices, may be facing stiff competition from newly constructed subdivisions nearby in the Interstate 15 corridor. She offered an example of a 34-year-old four-bedroom Scripps Ranch home that was listed for sale last May for $759,000. Today, it remains on the market despite a price reduction of more than $100,000."

"'I think all the buyers are waiting for the bubble to burst,' she said."

"The San Diego Association of Realtors said the number of active listings as of yesterday stood at 14,847, compared with 8,500 in February 2005."

"Roni Telmosse, last year's association president said her agents are warning sellers to plan on a four-month period from listing to close of escrow, but only if the home is priced right, is in good condition and is in a desirable place. 'If it's unrealistically priced or it's a condition issue, it's quite likely going to take longer,' she said."