Mark's Notebook


	If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of him. - Thomas Carlyle

Home prices more apt to drop

San Jose Mercury News

Thursday 28 July 2005, 9:23 am
Keywords: News Articles

Valley is fourth riskiest market in US, study says

By Sue McAllister, Mercury News

With the local job market weak and real estate prices rising faster than incomes, chances are better than 50 percent that home values in Santa Clara County will fall in the next two years, a mortgage insurance company said Wednesday.

In its quarterly "market risk index," Walnut Creek-based PMI Mortgage Insurance calculated a 51.3 percent likelihood that home prices in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara will drop over the next two years.

"What we see in a lot of California markets, and certainly San Jose ... is prices are outstripping incomes," said Beth Haiken, a PMI spokeswoman.

The area, which includes all of Santa Clara County, had -0.82 percent employment growth between March 2004 and March 2005, she said.

http://www.mercurynews.com:80/mld/mercurynews/news/12243396.htm