What's a homebuyer to do when entry level homes area priced around $750,000 and that may be as low as they go since the market's starting to turn around? Such is the case for first-time buyers in the South Coast area of California.

Nooshawk.com, an online newspaper without the paper, reports, "The South Coast has a chronic shortage of entry-level homes like townhomes, condominiums and smaller single-family homes so federal stimulus spending could have a positive effect locally."

The president of the local Realtor association, Alyson Spann, told Nooshawk, "For under a million, you can get a standard three- or four-bedroom home, maybe a single-level ranch style or the smaller two- or three-bedroom bungalow on the east or west side of State Street, some with a view." Spann is the official spokesperson for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors and a Realtor with Village Properties.

"Home sales are picking up across the South Coast," said Span, quoted at the site. "More favorable interest rates are one reason for the increase in local sales of under $1 million. Prospective buyers are more likely to get off the fence when rates are low," she said.

She continues, saying that once the market hit's the bottom, it's usually too late for buyers to know when that bottom is reached. "If you wait for the bottom to hit, you've waited too long," she says, pointing out that once the drive begins to purchase homes, the competition makes prices increase once again.

Published: February 27, 2009

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Mr. Carr is an award-winning real estate broker in Northern Virginia and authored "Real Estate Investing Made Simple: a commonsense approach to building wealth." He also contributed to Donald Trump’s book, "The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received," and is an active trainer and coach of top producers in the Washington DC market. As a sought-after expert on real estate, Mr. Carr has been featured on CNN, various broadcast outlets and was the former real estate editor for The Washington Times. He accepts questions at his blog www.RealEstateOlogy.org.