If history repeats itself…………AND IT WILL…………………..the coastal communities are usually the last to drop but they DO drop just like everywhere else. If you watch the L.A. blogs, high end communities like Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades are now beginning to feel the heat and prices are dropping.

I am firmly convinced that we won’t see the bottom until the end of 2011 or the middle of 2012 (at the earliest). Whenever the bottom hits, prices will not rebound overnight just like they didn’t go to the top overnight………..so you’ll have plenty of time to shop when you are convinced that the bottom has been found. There are no guarantees but the trends with bubbles in the housing market in this country have always repeated themselves since 1890 so there is little reason to believe that this one will be shorter or have less impact. All the signs are there that this one will have more impact due to the crazy lending policies and easy money that was available. Buying in a bubble market before that time is like going to Las Vegas and playing the $1000 slot machines……………you’ll probably lose a lot of money.

**There is always the possibility that interest rates will be much higher by the time the bottom hits (or thereafter) which is something that you will have to factor in but nobody can say for sure.