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Californication definitely has been occurring in the last 8-10 years in the Reno/Carson City and Las Vegas areas of Nevada.
Prices aren't dropping by a lot here (yet), but housing definitely is taking longer to sell, due in part by owners not being willing to drop their prices one bit--those places are still on the market.
Noticed that the Help You Sell/Assist to Sell discount brokers seem to be doing a brisker business--$3k versus 6% broker commission. Though today's paper lists one of them charging more for properties over $200k.
My place -- further out from Reno/Carson City but still in commute distance--(acre and outbuildings and older dw) was under $50k in '99 and technically had basically doubled in value late last year; if its value drops 50%, well I've been housed here for seven years....not quite sure how to do the math on investment opportunity cost of lost interest and inflation versus property taxes/insurance/utilities/maintenance and improvement like new furnace versus cost of comparable rental, but as long as it and I hold together, expect to be here for at least another seven years plus.
Nice to have it paid off, and homesteaded, whatever it will be valued at this year and the next several. But people with continuing mortgages on those new mini-mcMansions with basically no yard space and they are dependent on volunteer fire department, may see that they bought a place for more than it is worth.
They're still building the mini-mcMansions, new development plans still all the time going to the county in hopes of approval, but where the water is coming from is going to be a good question. If you have water rights for sale out here, you can just about name your price and double it or triple it.
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