jg,
Just a thought but could you be mining out of the data what you want to happen? I beleive that there was a big decline in the early 90’s but I think your greater than 50% decline is a data blip and hoping for another may leave you a bit wistful.
I have nothing whatsoever to substantiate this but I suspect what you are looking at is a flaw in the median. I’d love to see the data sets and sample sizes capable of substaianting a drop of 50% in the last cycle. I suspect the owners of higher priced homes in La Jolla were more likely in better financial shape than the owners of lower end homes and just didnt sell. I suspect an owner of an oceanfront house or one of many other trophy locations would be far more likely to have creative options as well as huge personal reasons/family history to hang on. I also suspect that volume was miniscule at the trough. I have a hard time believeing you could get a nice place in LJ for under $400k in 1994.
