Trapped by Market

Masoud Bokaie, co-founder of engineering firm BORMAssociates Inc. in Irvine, California, owes $2.6 million ona 3,664-square-foot house with marble floors and granitecounters about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away in NewportBeach. He's waiting to hear whether lenders Luther BurbankSavings and Wells Fargo & Co. will approve a short sale. He received an offer last month "close to" the loanbalances, said Shirley Cameron, his agent at Coldwell BankerPlatinum Properties in Irvine, who declined to specify howmuch. Bokaie said he doesn't want to pay $7,000 a month innet costs including the property's mortgages and taxes whenreal estate values in the area continue to tumble. "What's the point when the market is going in the otherdirection?" Bokaie said in an interview. The U.S. median home price was $173,100 in October, 25percent lower than its July 2006 peak, according to theNational Association of Realtors. Prices fell 7.1 percentfrom a year earlier, the slowest pace of the year.