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

Home price growth is decelerating nationwide, but of course housing is a regional story.

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):