Southwest California Mid-year Housing Update

So much good news - sales are up significantly comparing 1st half to 1st half over the past 4 years. Some cities are double or triple their volume during 2007. Granted '07 was not a stellar year but these numbers are well up over any of our previous best.

Prices are also stable. Again from our peak in '07 most cities have dropped 50% - 60% like a rock. But the past two years have been relatively stable in spite of sales gyrations, a switch from REO to short-sale dominated market, stimulus, moratoria, etc.

Now if we could only get the government out of our business we might OK. I understand this positive news doesn't necessarily apply to the rest f the country but for our little corner of the world, among the hardest rocked by foreclosures in 2007-2008, we're doing OK. After a brief drop in membership, we're back to nearly our peak. And while most members are working twice as hard to make half as much, at least there's a little good news.