Real Estate Journal - "Interest Rates, Fuel Costs Partner To Derail Housing Markets" (7-12-06)

"More far-flung than other Bay Area suburbs, California's Central Valley is experiencing a housing market downturn more pronounced than in the Bay Area, the Mercury News says. During the residential real-estate boom, home buyers were buying properties farther from San Francisco in exchange for cheaper price tags, and Central Valley communities proliferated, the paper says. But now, with higher gasoline costs, rising mortgage rates and significantly appreciated real-estate prices, homes in the region are harder to sell and prices are falling. The article reports that in California's San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties, sales of new and resale homes dropped 29% in the first five months of this year from the same period last year, according to DataQuick Information Services. At the end of May, almost 4,000 houses were up for sale in San Joaquin County, a year-over-year rise of almost 250%, the Mercury News says. To get an idea of the commute between these communities and San Francisco, a calculation on Indo.com shows that the driving distance between the San Joaquin town of Tracy and San Francisco is 62 miles."