Some housing bubble updates from California. "Sales volumes are slowing while more homes are coming on the market. In March, 9,755 homes changed hands in L.A. County, a 10.3% decline from a year earlier, and the fifth straight month of falling sales. Prices haven't risen more than 4% from one month to the next since last summer. In some cases, sellers are dropping their asking prices."

"Today's combination of prices rising more slowly, fewer sales and growing supply are typical of the first phase of a slowdown, UCLA economist Christopher Thornberg says. 'Prices are still going up, because they always go up even when the market starts to cool,' he says. 'It will take six to nine months for a cooling market to start to see lower prices. It happens time after time.'"

"The housing market in California has fallen into a visible slump, and the downturn could erode economic expansion in fast-growing regions such as the East Bay, economists warned."

"'Things are slower than they were,' said Ron Atkins, a realty agent in Pleasanton. 'We have been used to a screaming hot seller's market. But it was always unrealistic that we could have maintained that kind of blazing pace. Buyers stepped to the sidelines in the middle of 2005 and they have remained on the sidelines ever since,' Atkins said."

"The sizzling Central Coast housing market may finally be cooling, say some local real estate experts. David Martines, an agent in San Luis Obispo, said how quickly a home sells depends on whether it’s priced appropriately. When homes do sell, they’re going for less. 'In not too recent times, people were getting asking (price),' he said. 'Now, people are making offers that are lower. They’re not paying full price. The market has to adjust to that.'"

"It’s a mixed bag elsewhere in the county, said Richard Watkins, a broker in Cayucos. 'Los Osos has got some challenges, but that’s not a big surprise,' Watkins said. 'We’re seeing a fair amount of inventory build-up and price reductions.'"

"North County's once red-hot housing market continued to chill out last month as sales fell sharply from March 2005. Inventory of unsold homes continued to swell, reaching 7,078 at the end of March, said Dennis Smith, a realtor in Carlsbad. 'Buyers and sellers are having a stare down,' Smith said, offering a reason for the growing supply. 'We've got as many properties right now in North County as we had in the whole county at this time in 2005.'"

"March sales plunged 44 percent year over year for condos, and 20 percent for single-family houses. For the first three months of the year, single-family sales declined 19 percent and condo sales declined 33 percent."

"Robert Campbell, an independent San Diego economist, said there is plenty of reason for concern. 'Real estate is a highly cyclical market,' Campbell said. 'From this point in time, it's only going to get worse. The good times are behind us. The money's been made. The market only gives so much before it starts taking away.'"

"Campbell suggests the San Diego County market is out of whack because median family income is roughly half the pay it takes to buy the median-priced home, and today's prices trigger mortgage payments generally twice what properties can command in the way of rent. 'Eventually, all markets will come back to equilibrium,' he said."