Bob Schwartz at Realty Times has this report on San Diego. "Reviewing the recently released real estate sales data for San Diego, the lay person might conclude that the June home appreciation figures were down approximately 1 percent as compared to June 2005. The reality is the decline is probably much closer to three or five times the published figures."

"The appreciation figures cited are the median sales prices. The sales of these upper-end luxury estates skew the median appreciation sales data."

"The reported sales data does not take into consideration incentives used by not only major builders, but, in today's market the majority of home sellers, to entice scarce buyers to purchase their properties. Just open up the Sunday real estate section of your local paper and the magnitude of these incentives becomes quite apparent."

"You must understand that the builders are not being altruistic. No, they just want to move standing inventory, and move it now before any further declines!"

"It was just a little over a year ago that the majority of builders were not even co-operating with real estate agents. Now, the builder/agent cooperation has gone 180 degrees plus. Agents are being invited to catered brunches and offered co-op commissions up to 5 percent, as advertised in the July 23, 2006, Union-Tribune!"

"A $500,000 home sale with a $25,000 interest rate buy-down/closing costs package incentive will be recorded as a $500,000 sale. Yet, the $500,000 sale, in reality was only $475,000 or 5 percent below the reported sales data! So if the $500,000 sale was just 1 percent below the June 2005 median appreciation, you can see that the 'real' difference was 6 percent below last year!"

"In my opinion, this is no 'return to normal' or 'slight correction' to the San Diego real estate market. By year's end there will be no denying we will experience a double digit appreciation decline. A decline that will take years, not months, to work itself out."

From Inman News. "What a difference a year makes. The San Diego real estate market is now experiencing a much slower sales pace, and home prices are retreating."

"The San Diego Association of Realtors reported that the sales volume of attached, existing-home unit sales in San Diego County fell 38.9 percent in June 2006 compared to June 2005, while the average sales price dropped 4.6 percent and the median sales price dipped 5.2 percent in June 2006 compared to June 2005."

"Deborah Sortino, a Realtor in Oceanside, Calif., said the last two months have been very slow in her market area. 'It's like someone switched off the light, (properties) are not moving one way or another. There are a lot of people looking but I don't see a lot of sales pending.'"

"Rustin Rulenz, a Realtor in Pacific Beach, Calif., said,'You can drive down the street and see 15 yard signs in the first three blocks. There are a lot more open houses. It makes me laugh to see so many open house (signs) pointing in so many different directions,' he said."

"Real estate professionals are getting back to basics in this new market. 'A lot of agents say they are going door-knocking again,' he said."