It's a buyer's market in Concord, California these days, but that doesn't mean the buyers are rushing out to buy.

If you're a home seller in Concord, CA., you may want to get out the PeptoBismol before reading this – it isn't the sort of news that sellers welcome, but home buyers have just the opposite taste.

It's no surprise that the Concord real estate market has been hit pretty hard with the recent challenges in the housing industry. The forces at work have help to create an extremely favorable buyer's market in Concord.

Yahoo Real Estate shows 929 properties in some stage of foreclosure.

RealtyTrac shows:

• Pre-Foreclosure Properties = 678
• Auction Properties = 197
• Bank Owned Properties = 523 

The image to the right is from RealtyTrac showing the amount of foreclosure activity in the area between Clayton Road and Concord Blvd. – not a pretty picture.

An independent study by a non-profit organization our of Chicago reported that each foreclosure with 1/8 mile of your property will lower property values by .8% to 1.2%. The pipeline is being overloaded with properties entering foreclosure which is slowing down the process. Good news for homeowners in trouble, bad news for those watching their property value drop.

The major headaches in the Concord real estate market are at the lower price points. Sales of higher priced homes are helping to keep the median home price in Concord from dropping like a rock, but don't let this confuse you – the lower half of the market in Concord is getting hammered.

This week's Market Detais Report for Concord, CA shows how the upper end of the market has been resisting the downward pressure until recently. The bottom half of the market is still falling while the middle is leveling off a bit.

Buyers should consider getting off the fence and getting their ducks in a row. Interest rates are very good, there are many properties to choose from and if you play your cards right (get a good negotiator), you may land the deal of a lifetime.

It's a slow market. We don't expect it to heat much either. Those that need to sell – need to sell. Those that want to sell, but don't need to – should consider pulling their house off the market for maybe 8 to 12 months. High inventory will only serve to support the anemic market conditions in Concord.