In 2008, the U.S. housing market lost over 3 trillion dollars in value ? with an overall decline of over 11% of the average house price and over 2.3 million homes going into foreclosure. And things aren't looking much better so far in 2009.

As a matter of fact, the homeowners who thought they actually might make it through the current housing crash without big losses are waking up to reality. In an article published on February 2nd, 2009 in ?The Los Angeles Times,? it turns out upper-level Los Angeles suburbs such as Santa Monica, Malibu and Beverly Hills were finally hit with huge price drops in the last months of 2008 ? losing anywhere from 26% to 30% of their value in an incredibly short time period.

Why the huge and rapid drop? Because, believe it or not, prices in these areas were still soaring in early 2008, even as the rest of the country began racking up record foreclosures. And residents thought they were bulletproof.

?I didn't believe it until the end,? said Shelley Conn, who put her Santa Monica home on the market for an asking price of $2.3 million. She was shocked to have to accept an offer of $1.9 million. In her neighborhood, nobody ever dreamt that a house would ever sell for less than $2 million.

These properties? prices held up longer because most of them didn't have the kind of subprime financing which fueled the beginning of the housing crisis. But with the entire housing market in freefall, eventually even the big mansions in the richest areas weren't immune. Beverly Hills house prices fell by an average of $1 million last year.

Financial forecasters had been taking a lot of heat for saying it was a matter of ?when? not ?if? prices fell in these neighborhoods. It was a simple case of ?shoot the messenger? ? because when a king-sized recession like this hits, people can't afford to ?move up? to the richer zip codes ? and eventually supply outstrips demand. The more affluent areas of San Francisco and other major cities across America are suddenly facing the same dire situation.

What does this mean to the REO Broker? Simple. More and more high level REO property listings will begin to appear ? which means more and more profit for REO Agents who know how to take advantage of this growing market. It's unfortunate this situation has to exist, but, unless these properties are sold, they'll fall into disrepair and bring down the entire value of the neighborhood.

Copyright (c) 2009 Frank Patrick