Guy and Karen Vidal are experiencing something new as they try to sell the small Craftsman house they own on Apex Avenue in Silver Lake.
Since listing it at $699,000 two months ago, they've reduced the price twice -- first to $679,000 and then to $659,000 a couple of weeks later.
After buying, restoring and selling 20 distressed homes over the last five years in Silver Lake and Echo Park -- and making at least a small profit on each one -- the former entertainment industry workers feel the real estate market shifting beneath their feet.
"We specialize in restoring places to their original glory: old Craftsman, bungalows and Spanish houses," Karen Vidal said. "When you walk in the door, we make it look like it's 1925."
The problem for the Vidals is that after several years of frenzied bidding, buyers are also determined to turn back the clock.
Although most neighborhoods in Southern California saw home prices increase by double-digit percentages in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of last year, some experts point to another key indicator -- fewer sales -- as evidence that the sellers' market of the last five years is coming to a close.
"This is a time when buyers have time to shop and compare and can make a thoughtful purchase," said Roni Telmosse, branch manager of Coldwell Banker Carlsbad in San Diego County. "It's not like a year ago, when buyers were walking around with a check in their pocket and writing offers on the hood of their car."
All told, there were 69,499 single-family homes sold in the first three months of the year in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and San Diego counties, according to DataQuick Information Systems -- a decline of more than 8% from the same period a year earlier.
Riverside was the only county to show an uptick in sales activity -- 6.6% -- in the first quarter, while San Diego had 17% fewer sales; Ventura, 16%; Orange, 15%; Los Angeles, 10%; and San Bernardino, 3%, according to DataQuick.
Call it a correction, a flattening or a return to common sense, but as inventory creeps up and the number of sales diminishes, many believe the end of soaring prices in Southern California is nigh.
"Buyers don't have that panicked feeling: 'If I don't buy before the post goes up, I'll get into multiple offers and lose out,' " said Ron Tornell, manager of the Thousand Oaks office of Prudential California Real Estate.
