As a rule of thumb, if a micromarket has great schools, it hasn’t returned to fundamentals compared to the rest of the county. As a whole, the countywide prices, relative to income have returned to their averages over the last few decades, Rich has made some nice graphs which he updates often and can be seen in the archives of the main page. The coast from Del Mar to Carlsbad and the Poway district areas are the low crime/great schools regions, they have resisted similar drops for the most part. Within each area, the different price points have had different reactions but it’s close enough.

Here’s the problem, which will be revealed if you read this blog for very long. The educated upper middle class are the folks that like these areas, they are also the type of folks that research things and participate in our little forum. They are also the folks who aren’t devastated as much by the economic downturn. So we have a little stand off going in a few markets, get some popcorn, it should get interesting.

Since you are new, can I ask you a question, what made you look at poway and what were your other top choices (I bet i can guess?)

I have a theory why the sticky areas are bucking the trend and may escape altogether. Whenever someone with some money, some smarts and a family comes to live in this region, they focus on just a few areas. It may be contributing to the seemingly endless demand in those areas when everyone is supposed to be broke and unable to get a loan. No matter how many soup lines in detroit they show on the news, people with money seem to be cruising Carlsbad for a house.