New year looks to be good for buying a home

Let's dub 2008 the "Year of the Home Buying Opportunity."

That's my glass-half-full take on what's going to happen with the residential real estate market.

But the extent of the opportunity will materialize over time.

Perhaps market tracker DataQuick Information Systems and the California Association of Realtors provided a glimpse last week with sales and price statistics for November.

DataQuick noted that the median price across the Southern California region stretching from Ventura to San Diego fell a record 10.3 percent from a year earlier, to $435,000. (DataQuick's stats include new and previously owned houses and condominiums.)

The price drop was bigger - 12percent across California and in Los Angeles County - in the state association's report, which focused just on previously owned single-family houses.

Both reports noted that prices have dropped to early 2005 levels.

Robert Kleinhenz, the association's deputy chief economist, recalled that during the market slump of the 1990s, the biggest price decline statewide was 7.2 percent in May 1993.

Los Angeles County's biggest drop was 11.6 percent in March 1993.

Price drops back then for the state generally didn't exceed 5percent annually, he noted.