According to Kelly Bennett from the Voice of SanDiego.org the open houses for real estate listings in some spots in the county have begun to resemble the giddy days of the housing boom -- that is, except for the "bank-owned" and "reduced price" signs in the lawn.

Some brokers reported close to 100 offers coming in on a small house on a small lot for sale in North Park last week, one of which was mine.The home in my neighborhood was listed for $197K. My clients offer was 350k and we did not get it..It was like a feeding frenzy. One agent who offered to pay more than the asking price for a Mira Mesa house and was denied found out that there were 25 other offers on the house.

Four clients of local broker have all made offers on the same three houses in Rancho Peñasquitos that are listed in the high-$400,000 or low-$500,000 range, he said. All of the houses received multiple bids, and none of his clients' offers were accepted because "they weren't high enough," he said.

"To me the market is as active now as I've seen it in a good three to four years," broker said.

This movement comes despite continuing weakness in home prices and analysts' warnings that prices could continue to fall for at least several more months, and despite a depressed economy with record unemployment.

According to the agents the the San Deigo Voice has spoken to, the frenzy of buyer activity is happening on the low end of the market -- usually anything lower than $350,000, agents say -- in neighborhoods where foreclosures have already wrought massive price declines from the peak. Some agents said their buyers are jumping in even as they admit their homes could fall in price in the coming years.

             
 



Countywide housing prices were down 22.9 percent by the end of February compared to the same month in 2008, according to the most recent Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, released Tuesday.

The index, which tracks the price movement over time of houses that have sold at least once before, showed prices in the county down 41.4 percent from the local market peak in November 2005.