Southern California Housing Market Is Down Yet Again

The Southern California housing market, often a bellwether for the rest of the nation, is officially in bad shape:

The sluggish Southern California housing market took another hit in January, with sales plunging 17% from a year earlier, according to a report released Wednesday….The median [price] is now $32,000 below its all-time high reached in June and sales, clocking in at 12,665 last month, haven’t been this low in January since 2008.

….As homes have sat unsold, the number of listings has swelled, spurring more sellers to trim the asking price to close a deal. In Los Angeles County, nearly 28% more homes were on the market in January than a year earlier, according to Zillow. Nearly 16.5% of those listings had at least one price cut last month, up from 10% a year earlier.

There’s an awful lot of red in this chart from the LA Times:

None of this means we’re looking at a housing bust à la 2007. But it’s not a great sign of continued economic growth either. Y’all be careful out there.