for me personally…when price reach 2001 or 2002 levels I will feel comfortable to get into the market. Regardless of what I can afford I want to be able to see reversion to some kind of historical average or “reversion to mean” as they call it.
I’m with Goldman Sachs on this one, will wait for a 40% from the current median. This implies around 2002 prices, as per Dataquick OC median was somewhere in the low 300s I believe.. 312k or so. I believe the national median would go down to around $150-160k or so and that would make OC double the national average, sounds about right, even though OC does not nearly have double the national income!
If you think about it 312k under 28/36 ratio and 20% down is still VERY expensive, I mean people need to have $63,000 cash to put down and another $10,000 in closing costs and what about additional expenses..emergency fund, moving etc. but then again OC is an expensive place to live.
Who knows, it may go down more to the mid-high 200s if foreclosures skyrocket because of the ARM tsunami ahead of us and financing dries up even more! I’m trying to be conservative with the 40% drop estimate.