I had the chance today to hear some stats about what's happening in the Long Beach market.  I learned that in Aug. the median price in Long Beach was $320,500, down 14.5% from Aug. of 2008, but that Lakewood had a median price of 400,000 up 1.3% from one year ago.  Some other stats you may find interesting.  First time Buyer home index is 67%.  In a great market we are happy if 20-25% of our first time buyers qualify to buy a home so this market is exception.  The interest rates today for 30 year fixed conforming loan with 20% down is 5 1/8 to 5 1/4, depending on credit scores, etc.  Our total inventory in Long Beach is way down from what we usually expect and in total we probably have less than a 4 month supply and that's all areas of the City combined.   Today the median time on the market is 35.2 days.  That says that there is a large pent up demand for property in the Long Beach area. The are still good buys to be had and if you thought the investors thought it was great before, in this day of less inventory they are aggressively going after property.