Home values falling less sharply than prices
San Diego home prices have been falling for three years as sellers facing financial distress accept lower offers from bargain-hunting buyers. But the course of home values tells a slightly different story.
Zillow.com, a Seattle-based Web site that follows the housing market nationally, released figures yesterday that illustrate the gap between prices and what it estimates as the true value of homes.
The company found that values have fallen 17.9 percent in the past year in San Diego County, while the median price was off 27.2 percent over the same period, as measured by San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
The reason for such a gap: More than a third of homes sold over the past year previously went through foreclosure and fetched below-market prices when compared with nonforeclosure properties.