I got back from a 3 day conference (Tenant in Common Association) in Las Vegas this week and everything seemed to revolve around the 900 pound gorilla in the room – Wall Street’s meltdown.

This morning, when I turned on Bloomberg News to watch the opening bell at 6:30, I was morbidly fascinated to watch the market plunge almost 700 points, then recover to above the line, then to plunge back down 400 points, only to rise to “just” 288 points off the mark as I write this. Wow!

The problem is liquidity – there’s no money flowing. Money flowing is like oil flowing in your engine. When it quits, your engine quits. Just that simple. This weekend, finance ministers from the major industrial countries are meeting in Washington to try and get a handle on this credit crunch and the pervasive fear running amuck.

So – what impact does this have on our local Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo real estate? We’re watching it like a hawk, but it would appear buyers are flooding into the market to take advantage of much lowered price points. See September pendings compared to last September’s numbers.

Our September newsletter expressed the (incorrect – an urban myth!) Chinese concept for crisis: danger and opportunity.  Only with rear view mirror hindsight will we know.