OC Housing Prices in Decline

I read on  Mark Lasner’s blog on the OC Register that housing prices are nasty to grim.    He writes that the bottom of the housing price decline will end of the next year.  There will be significant declines in the housing market for the rest of the year.   I predict significant layoff forecasts for 2009 for most sectors except for the defense industry.  The defense industry, which I work in, will have its rounds in layoffs in 2010 as there will be significant cuts to defense programs.    Boeing is one of the largest employees in the county and employees 5000 workers.

In addition, OC house pricing is still unaffordable and needs to drop to the point where it is affordable at the median income in the county.  For me, this is a sign of good news because it means I could be a property owner by the end of the year.

During the real estate boom, I decided to not to buy a place.  I had a gut feeling that the real estate boom was a artificial bubble and showed no interested in purchasing property.  One of my coworkers stated that I should become a real estate investor and invest in apartment duplexes.  My judgement was to stay away from the market because I did not have enough cash on hand to purchase propertyand I had no clue on how maintain a property.    Therefore, I had to hire contractors to do all of the work and my expenses on the property would be higher than the rent paid on the apartment.

So far, my decision to stay away from market was a good decision