Real picture of real estate now

Is there anybody out there who can give me the real picture of real estate market now? Especially in california(but not limited to california, i still want to know about other areas to get the bigger picture). We all know that all the media analysis etc are not so accurate since they only analyse based on some hard assumptions.

I would like to know from real people with real experiences. Please share if you do have any idea about how it is going in your area with respect to housing market, even if you think it is not accurate completely. I just want to hear what you have to say on this topic.

My personal take on this...it is definitely going down. I see a lot more "open house" signs on every intersection than ever before when i go out in the weekends, and most of these are for condos.

I personally think, blogs are better to get this kind of info than any news website. So please write your comments on this topic.