Kern County house prices took a dip in December according to the latest Crabtree Report.
The price of exsisting homes were down an average $6,200 last month as the housing market went into its traditional holiday slowdown.
But local appraiser Gary Crabtree says other factors are slowing the local housing recovery.
They include a 15 percent unemployment rate in Kern County and an increase in mortgage rates that will cost borrowers more money every month to make the mortgage.
Crabtree says housing prices will be hard to predict this year.
"I think the lowest we were at is $89 a square foot,'' Crabtree said. ''This past month we were at $92.50 a square foot. I never thought we would break the $100 a square foot level, so where we go it's hard to tell," said Crabtree.
Seven of every 10 homes sold last month were either a foreclosure or a short sale.
