California hit hard by housing slump

Few parts of the country have escaped the housing slump. Even in the usually steady Midwest, where I live, housing prices have been either stagnant or dropping.

But few places have been hit as hard as California.

This story in the Los Angeles Times says that housing prices in the six-county area including and surrounding Los Angeles in June plunged a whopping 29.3 percent from one year earlier. That brings the median price of a home here to a still-high $355,000.

Here’s a radical thought: Maybe this isn’t a terrible thing. Sure, it’s awful for anyone trying to sell a home right now in Southern California. But it’s a good thing for anyone who wants to live in this part of the country.

I never could imagine how anyone could afford a single-family home near Los Angeles. The prices just seemed impossible. They had gotten too high here, too fast. As painful as the houisng slump may be, perhaps it is making some much-needed market corrections.