Home prices are close to hitting bottom.
That's what local real estate appraiser Gary Crabtree says in his latest report that tracks home sales and values.
"We'll have four, five, or six offers on a property above the list price and that's getting really frustrating to buyers," Crabtree said.
Many buyers walk away without a home. Other neighbors are more concerned with the eyesores that foreclosed properties create.
The properties harbor brown lawns, stray animals and mosquito-infested pools in back yards.
"Yeah I think the house has been empty for a few months now," said Matt Peishek, who rents a home in Southwest Bakersfield next door to a foreclosed property. "Personally, that doesn't concern me because I'm not a real picky guy."
Foreclosures are a sign of a souring real estate market and a drop in home prices. But that pool of foreclosures is beginning to dry up
"Now, instead of having so many on the market that you do not having enough buyers ... there are more continually coming along, there are fewer coming on the market, those are getting absorbed by those buyers," said Realtor Karen McKinzie.
According to Crabtree's report, the median price for an existing home jumped about 8 percent from April to May, an increase of about $9,000.
The number of home sales about matched the number of foreclosures. That could be good news if you're selling, possibly bad news if you're buying.
"It's going to bounce a little bit," McKinzie said. "it did the same in the 90s if you remember that slump. And it just bounced along the bottom and then it started to finally come back up."
Crabtree warns housing prices could be hit by another wave of foreclosed homes in June that many banks have been holding onto in an effort to stabilize prices.
"Is this going to be temporary and then we go into the sub-basement?" Crabtree asked. "That's the part we don't know and I don't know if anyone else can tell you."
