Real estate bubble? What bubble?
A study based on data from "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-chartered mortgage agencies that rarely handle loans larger than $322,700"-- which means the high-end of the market which has been most impacted is not included -- finds that prices continue to rise albeit a little slower. The highest increase of 7.9% was seen in LA and Miami but only a 2.9% increase in the San Francisco area (based on comparing a house's sale price to its previous sale price). According to the New York Times story (registration required):
California, Florida and the Northeast have attracted the most attention as bubble suspects because prices have risen 50 percent to 75 percent in many places there over the last five years. But other than in San Jose, which is in Silicon Valley, prices continued to rise during the first three months of 2003, despite a worsening of the economic slump that is now more than two years old.
...In the first three months of the year, the median home — the one worth more than half of all houses and less than half — cost $161,500, up 7 percent from early 2002, according to the Realtors' group. With a median price of $509,000, the San Francisco area had the most expensive homes, followed by Orange County, Calif., at $448,000, and Boston, at $414,000. The median price in the New York area was $329,000.