The Union Tribune reports on the Dataquick numbers. "San Diego County's residential real estate market continued to cool last month, with overall prices down 2.2 percent from August 2005. It was the third straight month of year-over-year price declines, DataQuick reported. It also was the slowest August in terms of sales volume since 1997."

"August was also the 26th consecutive month in which the total number of homes sold fell on a year-over-year basis. The year-over-year decline in total sales last month was 31.8 percent, the biggest for any month in 11 years."

"G.U. Krueger, an Irvine-based economist who specializes in housing issues, said buyers seem unwilling to pay asking prices, while sellers are reluctant to lower their expectations. 'We are in this tug of war between sellers and buyers, which is keeping home prices relatively stable, even though they are declining,' he said."

"Skip Wilkinson, who lives in Temecula, knows all about the stalemate. He says the decision not to sell his retired father's home in Clairemont a year ago, when the market was soaring, is costing him dearly. Few potential buyers have shown an interest since it went on the market in April. The initial asking price was $599,000."

"'I reduced it to $550,000 about two months ago. Still, there is no one looking at it. I have had maybe seven people in six months. I expected it to keep going up,' he said of the housing market. 'It didn't.' On Monday, Wilkinson slashed the price to $499,000."

"DataQuick reported that resale condominium sales volumes were down almost 39 percent countywide from August 2005. Economists say downtown San Diego's condominiums are vulnerable to price drops because of the high number of speculators in the market. The number of resale condo sales downtown dropped from 83 in August 2005 to 42 last month."

"New downtown housing, which consists of condos, dropped from a median of $654,000 to $495,000 during the same period. There were only 31 units sold in August of this year compared with 160 a year earlier

"Kathy Butler, a longtime real estate agent, recently began marketing Skip Wilkinson's home. She says many sellers are having a hard time accepting declining prices. Like Wilkinson, they are 'chasing the market down.' By the time they realize their price is too high, the market has fallen further."

"David Berson, chief economist for mortgage giant Fannie Mae, said he is having the same problem. He has had to adjust his national projections downward."

"'The actual numbers keep coming in weaker than we expected,' Berson said. 'The leading indicators of housing activity continue to point downward. Purchase applications from the weekly Mortgage Bankers Association survey continue to edge down. The National Association of Home Builders' confidence index is at the lowest level since early 1991, when we were going into a recession.'"

"Butler said real estate agents and sellers should brace themselves for the possibility of a long downward trend. California's home market tends to run in cycles, she said. 'The cycles last for years, not for months.' Butler said. 'We need to realistically figure this will go on for a while.'"

"Gary Kent, an agent who works with Butler, said he tells home buyers that the days of buying and selling properties quickly for fast profits are over for the near future. 'I am advising my clients not to buy now if you are planning to resell in a year or two, because you probably won't make any money.'"