According to the latest statistics released by DataQuick, the median value of a home sold in Orange County in the month of March 2009 was down 22.9% year to date. Orange County has faired much better than California overall, which is closer to 30%. "Have we reached the bottom?" is the ubiquitous question and this humble appraiser says "no". A graphic picture of the monthly home sales would show that the median value has slowed on it's drop to the bottom, but make no mistake, it is still dropping. This is the time of the year where we should historically see the start of a steady increase in median sales price, but the best we are seeing is a slow down in the value declines. BPOs, or Broker Price Opinions (performed by Realtors, not appraisers), are the fuel which continues to drive down prices because they want the properties to sell quicker. When we see bidding wars by potential buyers, which drive up the sales price above the BPO value, it is a sure bet the BPO was not a fair market value. To be honest, BPOs are not fair market values, they are "liquidation values". We will continue to see home values decline as long as we have a surplus of these properties sold at "liquidation value" prices.