So we've been saying for many months that basing the housing market on aggregate sales and price numbers for all of L.A. County can be misleading. Some offers, in fact, have beaten the asking prices. The reasons range from bargain-priced foreclosures that generate bidding wars to still sought-after communities that are relatively immune to major price drops. ZipRealty, an online brokerage, has done a survey of "hottest" zip codes and of the top 10, eight are in California. Youngstown, Ariz. was No. 1, with homes selling for 11 percent above their asking price, followed by San Pedro, at 10 percent. From the WSJ:

While eight of the top 10 zip codes came from California, ZipRealty's Leslie Tyler notes that "many California banks may be holding onto 'shadow inventory' ... meaning more homes could come on the market pretty quickly to change the dynamic." Six of the 10 "coldest" zip codes were in Florida, where sellers have taken advantage of a big overhang of supply-or wildly unrealistic list prices from sellers-to win huge cuts.

Hottest Cities % of Asking
Youngtown, Ariz. 111.08%
San Pedro, Calif. 109.90%
New Haven. Conn. 107.30%
Oakland, Calif. (94606) 105.61%
SD-Encanto, Calif. 103.31%
Oakland (94601) 103.18%
Hermosa Beach, Calif. 102.58%
Chula Vista, Calif. 102.52%
Richmond, Calif. 102.52%
Rialto, Calif. 102.45%