San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

So far I have not. I have two in escrow right now and am holding my breathe so I will let you know. Had 4 in September that closed okay but one of them (the lender) did a final review that held things up for a week AFTER loan docs were signed. The problem with that was that it was a relo and they wanted to make sure the buyers had been employed here for sure. So they waited to see the first pay stub after employment here in San Diego.

I do think potential buyers are stepping back after the past few weeks of downside activity. It seems perfectly logical.

'specially if they had their down payment in the stock market.

Not that brilliant of a statement dude.

Any potential homebuyer that has (or shall I say had) down payment in the stock market is an idiot.

The threat of layoffs is a much larger deterrent.

Poll anyone here (and there are many future homebuyers) about where they have the downpayment money stashed and I will be surprised is any of them say, "I had it in the stock market."

i dont know. i talked toa realtor today who said a deal on land fell through because the buyer got cold feet after being crushed this week in the stock market. if you're poorer overall, you might not want to buy...

Actually, to your point SD R. When my wife originally bought her own place, she was in the middle of escrow, when her company stock tanked. She called up her agent and said she was gonna backed out, not because she had the downpayment in stock. She was more concerned that there was a problem with her company.

But what was even more ridiculous on her part was how she ended up going through escrow anyway. Not because she really changed her mind about the safety of her job...But she had already ordered sofas to be delivered there 2 weeks after close of escrow, and couldn't return them.

Yeah, I know, go figure. Anyway, it worked out in the end with the appreciation in the property.

I agree with you here. Not sure why that makes my comment not right. Plenty of idiots out there. Plenty.

Flu your point echos my thoughts, scaredycat yours does as well but I didn't expand in my post. Uncertainty of employment and loss of assets (the loss of assets part was not stated) will absolutely affect sales and even current escrows. No doubt about it and yes I am holding my breathe on these two current escrows.

I don't see the overall tightness in the credit markets affecting buyers with strong credit backgrounds and a decent downpayment, (yet) however the physical and psychological effects will be substantial. The good news for possible homebuyers is that the catalyst I have been talking about looks like it is here and it will (unfortunately) be the majestic unemployment cycle we are about to witness.

Those shouting bring it on, well it is on my friends. I can definitely see the engineering firm I work for cutting resources in the near future and we had a 5% workforce reduction yesterday. I am not so sure that other mainstream employment sectors will go unscathed either. This would include state and municipal jobs, education from public schools to state colleges and universities... pretty much everything across the board.

I have always wanted housing to become affordable for myself but I am very leery of what the future holds.

I pretty much laugh at those who say bring it on because what could happen will affect everyone. I know of some good people out of work. They didn't overspend, they didn't speculate, but they are still out of work. It will happen to more people as well.

Those who think they are untouchable usually are those who will fall the hardest if they do lose thier job.