A former colleague of mine scooped up a foreclosure in the Rancho del Oro area of Oceanside for $189k in 1997. Although this is in Oceanside, it is a family-oriented neighborhood and as nice as any you’d find in other cities.
To say that home values won’t come back down to this level may be correct, but it is not entirely impossible. We’ve been so desensitized by overly high housing prices that we forgot what a regular deal looks like. It’s sort of like gas prices.
This same home, after some improvements, has a Zestimate of $514k…roughly 2.7 times what it was worth 10 years ago. I know that Zestimates aren’t accurate, but it can sometimes be used as a ballpark figure. The point is that things have gotten out of whack and are bound to come back to trend levels.