Real estate prices in California have always been among the highest in the country, especially in the coastal region of southern California where you'll find the city of Huntington Beach. A California property would always beat out a condo home for sale in Toronto because California's economy was so strong. Unfortunately, the sub prime mortgage crisis and the recession that followed damaged the economy and cut the legs out from under many home owners, who suddenly found their properties devalued.

Before the crash, real estate prices peaked in California in mid 2007. At that time, a one bedroom house was selling for an average of $425,000, and a four bedroom property was selling for a whopping $680,000 - and that was just the average. As your Etobicoke real estate brokers will tell you, the prices in urban areas like Los Angeles or Huntington Beach, would be significantly higher than the average. In those areas, the average home would cost closer to $700,000 or $800,000. The goal Californians have been working towards is to achieve these values again.

Unfortunately for California property owners, this is not likely to happen any time soon, and perhaps not ever. Prices took such an enormous hit in 2008 (the average price of a one bedroom home dropped to less than $250,000 - that's nearly a 60% reduction) that an overnight recovery would be impossible. Homes for sale in Mississauga and other areas have managed a quick bounce-back, but they were never hit as hard to begin with, and many realtors are worried the bounce back is nothing but a bubble that will soon pop.

It is now 2010 and values are trending upwards once more. The average price for a four bedroom property bottomed out around $320,000 in 2008 but since then has nearly climbed back up to the $400,000 mark. This doesn't mean that no property owners are in need of Orange County bankruptcy attorneys to help them through foreclosures, just that the situation isn't quite as dire. The situation is still bad news for homeowners but good news for potential buyers, as the opportunity still exists to buy property at a discount.

Whether real estate prices will ever fully recover their pre-2008 levels is the question on everyone's minds, and the answer will hinge on the region's economy. With powerhouse industries like agriculture standing to suffer greatly in a warming climate and some parts of California already prone to drought and likely to get worse, prices for Sutton mortgages in the state may continue to drop if nothing is done. However, if California is able to reinvest in new industries (especially green technology and services) there may yet be hope of a return to sky high values.