Neal's Blog

Lets face it, in the 18 years that I have been "reading" the market and reporting to my clients and friends what to expect, I was never further off than in 2008. You can look it up-I felt prices would fall modestly in the most popular areas and up to 20 in the areas hardest hit by foreclosures. The 20 part was close. Newer areas with high foreclosure rates dropped 22-29 in 2008. These are areas like Plum Canyon, Tesoro, Canyon Gate, Creekside Valencia, Stetson Ranch and Fair Oaks Ranch that sold between 2004-2006, where buyers bought at top dollar and often with little or nothing down. More established areas though where people had bought at lower prices and had equity, I didn't expect to get hit too hard. Well as we all know 2008 hit every neighborhood hard and shook everyone's confidence in Real Estate. 2008 marked higher than expected volumes of foreclosures hitting Stevenson Ranch, Castaic, Copper Hill North Saugus and other very popular areas that sold primarily prior to the