San Diego existing home sale volume was fairly weak again last month, as we've all come to expect. Single family home sales were 22 percent slower than in February 2007 and condo sales 30 percent slower.

Inventory, in contrast, was notably higher than it had been a year prior, up 26 percent for single family homes and 15 percent for condos.

As a result, the number of months' worth of resale inventory remained substantially above its year-ago levels. At February's sale rate, it would have taken 12.7 months for all of the available inventory to be purchased. This is a 62 percent increase over last February's 7.7 months of inventory and is well above the levels that typically portend price declines.

— RICH TOSCANO