California real estate is made up of many micro markets. During the last twenty years we have seen a huge increases and declines in the price of California Real Estate. The first boom in the last score years was brought about by the savings and loan era.  Wrought with fraud and scandal these companies caused California real estate prices to soar.  Once these companies were caught and were no longer able to freely write loans.  The market suffered.  The biggest suffering was in the southern California real estate market, which had also seen some of the biggest gains.  The Los Angeles area saw losses as high as fifty percent in some areas.  Other areas like San Jose Real Estate and Sacramento Real Estate were hit but not as severely the real estate recession lasted from about 1989 until around 1996.  There was a slight increase in or a mini refinance boom in 1993 but prices did not really rebound until the technology and stock market boom of the mid to late nineties.  During this time California real estate began its trip back up, but not as quickly as the stock market.  From 1999 through 2001 the stock market crashed bring home values back down.