California freefall: Home prices fell 26% in February From 2007

L.A. Times reports:

Signs of distress are piling up in the California housing market, where prices are falling at three times the national rate of decline.

--Statewide, median sales prices fell by a stunning 26% in February, with home prices dropping at a rate of nearly $3,000 a week, the California Association of Realtors reports. Further, the CAR says the Fed's interest rate-cutting campaign "will have little near-term direct effect on the housing market."

--In the San Fernando Valley, losing a home to foreclosure is now almost as common for families as buying a home. The LA Daily News: "During January and February, there were 1,084 foreclosures and 1,335 sales of houses and condos in Valley communities from Glendale to Calabasas, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge."

"It's bad. It's really bad," market analyst Nima Nattagh told the Daily News.

The CAR reports median prices fell 27.2% from year-ago levels in the hard-hit Inland Empire east of Los Angeles, 30.9% in Sacramento, and 39.1% in Santa Barbara County.

No word yet from the National Association of Realtors on this one.