David Zabarte, our local market expert for the Diablo Valley area of California, has seen a slowdown in the market as things get back to normal after the strong seller's market of 2005 and 2006.

He has seen downward pressure on homes that fall below the median half of the market, while the upper half continues to stabilize.

Home prices costing upwards of $1.3 million have actually tended to grow in value.

Zabarte says there are mixed views on where the market will go from here, but his guess is that it will just remain flat for the time being.

But record low interest rates and high inventory should be enough incentive to get buyers moving.

And speaking of inventory, Zabarte says the region is flush with foreclosed or bank-owned properties, which are contributing to the downward price trend.

The great news in all of this is that first time buyers have a wide variety of houses to choose from, many of which would have been out of their price range just one or two years ago.

For more information on this area, contact David Zabarte at:
http://www.davidzabarte.com.

Published: March 12, 2008

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.