SoCal Realtor: People Are Flipping Homes Like Crazy, And The Least Informed Buyers Are Making The Market

And in Southern California, the market is still exploding.

In L.A., June prices were up 2.3% MOM and 19.9% YOY ; San Diego, 2.8% and 19.3% respectively.

In his latest video blog, San Diego-area real estate guru Jim Klinge, aka "Jim the Realtor," tours a 1,800-sq-.ft. home in Rancho Santa Fe that in March was bought for $745,000 but whose owners are now trying to sell it for $1.24 million — a 66% increase.

The home next door sold for $875,000 last October.

That should be setting off huge alarm bells, he says:

Buyers are paying crazy prices. We have become detached from the comps — logic, reasoning, all the ways we used to spend a lot of brain power on figuring out the right price, it just doesn't do you any good. In fact, it's a detriment to be too smart and try to be a buyer in this market — it's the least informed buyers making the market, just paying whatever it takes. I know it's always been like that, but it's a lot worse than it's ever been.

Watch the whole video here (complete with a surprise and rather unwelcome set of "gifts" at the entryway):