OC Sees Trouble In The Inland Empire

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The Inland Empire is the 14th largest Metro area in America, and one of the fastest growing, home to roughly as many people as the state of Kentucky. So it matters, big time. And the housing market is weakening rapidly, as this takeout from the OC Register documents.

If you don’t have time for the whole thing:

--The number of defaults ending in actual foreclosures in the IE rose from 8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005 to 32 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.
--At the current pace of sales, it would take 13.2 months to sell all the houses now for sale in the IE; that’s compared to 6.9 months a year earlier.
--A Lake Elsinore homeowner listed his house last June for $499,900, and hasn’t sold it, even though he has dropped his asking price twelve times, by a total of $100,000.

Comments, thoughts, insights?