The Union Tribune has this update on San Diego. "No longer steaming, the San Diego region's housing market continued a slow cooling trend in March. The end of the first quarter also marked the 21st consecutive month in which sales volumes were down on a year-over-year basis, DataQuick reported."

"Kenneth Rosen at UC Berkeley, maintains that the market's future is uncertain. 'Prices are actually starting to decline in San Diego because of the inventory of unsold units, both single-family and condos,' he said."

"Tom Belway and his wife hope to purchase an investment property not far from their home in Poway. 'We are hoping that the opportunities are starting to come back around in San Diego,' said Belway. 'We're starting to see price reductions in our area.'"

"'We definitely have noticed you getting more for your money right now, and it is not such a frenzy,' Alexia Spivey of El Cajon said. 'I have definitely seen the market slow down. Every single day I check the MLS (multiple listing service). Those homes are asking $950,000, and then two weeks later I see they have reduced the price to $875,000, $900,000. I don't think they are getting top dollar.'"

"Clearly influencing the slowdown in price escalation is the growing inventory of homes on the market. In June 2004, the number of homes listed for sale was 6,657. Yesterday, there were 17,010 listings."

"Richard Nesbitt, who manages (realtor) offices in Ocean Beach believes there is more sales activity at the upper end of the market in his area, which has helped boost the median price. But sales in general are down, he said. 'We're having people lower their asking prices because there are a lot of properties on the market, and buyers compare them, so multiple offers aren't coming in at list price or over list price.'"

"While overall prices have continued to climb, one out of four of the 65 ZIP codes with at least 20 sales during the last quarter saw year-over-year declines. Experiencing the largest year-over-year drop was Chula Vista Northeast (91914 ZIP), with a median-price decline of nearly 32 percent."

"In the new-home market, sales slowed dramatically, dropping 38 percent during the just-completed quarter. Contributing to the large decline was a big slowdown in condominium conversions, with sales numbering 801 during the first quarter, compared with 1,306 a year earlier. 'It's just slowed down. There's no getting around it,' said Alan Nevin, chief economist for the California Building Industry Association."