Ed Tisher is living the latest national statistic. He's trying to sell his San Jose home and just dropped the price $20,000 off the original $629,000 listing.
"I really thought that the sale would go fairly quickly and fairly easily, but I'm finding that it isn't," says Ed Tisher, a home seller.
Tisher's situation echoes the latest Standard & Poors' Case-Shiller Report. After a steady climb back, home prices in 20 of the largest cities are down .8 percent from a year ago.
Six cities set new lows since the 2006 peaks, prompting the chairman of the S&P index committee to say there is no good news in the October report.
Quincy Virgilio has been in real estate for 17 years and is past president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors.
"When you see news like this nationally that says price of housing are going down or potential for double dip, that's puts a lot of fear, locally and nationally," says Virgilio.
We are seeing more reduced signs, but of the 20 cities, four defied the dip including San Francisco which saw a 2.2 percent increase in price year over year.
Anne Wenzel is a Bay Area economist who founded the consulting firm Econosystems. She predicts some pocket markets will continue with modest gains, but says a true housing recovery depends on a strong job market.
"Housing is going to have a hard time for quite a few years until employment goes back up, until people feel comfortable taking on a 30-year mortgage," says Wenzel.
Ed admits he can no longer afford his mortgage and hopes more buyers are drawn to his reduced price.
