Oh, what a joy ride it was - real estate prices appreciated 127 percent between 2001 and 2006 in San Diego County. Many Coronadans enjoyed a new regional pastime: flipping. They'd purchase a condo unit, usually in downtown San Diego, as soon as those sales brochures were hot off the presses. Then, a year or two later, after the condo was built, they'd "flip" (sell) the property to a more conservative buyer, one who actually wanted to see brick and mortar and live there. More often than not, the flipper came away with a six-figure profit. And let's not forget the beauty of real estate then and now: the flipper made that profit leveraging his money with his happy lending partner.

Welcome back to normal, say California economists and Coronado Realtors. Say, what did normal look like anyway? And what lies ahead? Let's catch our breath, and check in with the facts and the future.

The good news is that Coronado prices are adjusting; a bubble is not bursting. And 2006 figures support that - while real estate prices fell overall throughout San Diego County, there were three notable exceptions: La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe and Coronado, where prices in the land of Oz rose six percent in 2006 over the previous year to a median of $1,299,000.

In March, the Coronado Association of Realtors held their monthly breakfast and this time the topic was foreclosures. The good news, the speaker noted, is that Coronado would see far fewer foreclosures than other parts of the county because few properties were bought here using "creative financing."

"We could see this coming - this was so expected," says Bruce Johnson, owner of Coronado Mortgage Company. "There were so many aggressive lenders out there offering things weren't practical - low downs and no downs and entry level subprime adjustable loans - and some people got carried away. The reality is that the minute there is any kind of interruption, the borrower is in big trouble. And that's why many of these subprime lenders went under."

Johnson, who has been a real estate broker for 30 years, entered the lending side of the business in 1986 when he realized his clients needed him there more. Over the past 20 years, Johnson says he's been able to get every client funded. "A few times that almost didn’t happen," he says. "Someone would lose their job, so it might have taken a little longer. Part of the key is not trying to do what's not possible."

Johnson recommends that every potential buyer should talk to lenders (or better yet, he suggests, a mortgage consultant) before they shop for a home. "You need to know what you can qualify for and know what is possible and practical for you," he says.

As a mortgage consultant, Johnson places loans "with every lender you've ever heard of. But the single most important thing I do is counsel people. I'm a mortgage planner. In reality, mortgages are actually assets."

Johnson estimates that there's more than a billion dollars of equity sitting inside Coronado homes and he is loathe to see these assets go unutilized.

"Mortgages are not bad, they're wonderful," he contends, saying he shudders when he hears people say they own their homes free and clear. "Having a mortgage is like being your own banker - you invest in a mortgage to increase your income."

The trick, says Johnson, is finding financial tools that are safe and offer liquidity. These days, that wouldn't be flipping properties in California, but it might mean buying some Class A office space - in Texas. Johnson, through his companion company, Coronado Realty Consultants, searches for real estate investment opportunities nationwide.

For Coronadans who prefer investments closer to home, Imperial Beach offers some attractive investment possibilities, say a number of local agents. "Savvy investors know to buy during down markets," says Ken May, owner and mortgage specialist at Imperial

Beach's Spirit Realty. May says Coronadans are attracted to "I.B." where houses, even within four blocks of the beach, can still be purchased for under $500,000. "I probably have three walkins from Coronado each week," May estimates. "And Coronadans have had a very positive influence on the town, buying and improving properties."

Back on the home front, Realtors are poised for Coronado's busiest season: summer. Bud Forrest, president of the Coronado Association of Realtors, predicts "business as usual with some minor changes."

Forrest, owner of Shores Sales and Management, points to Coronado's still relatively small inventory of homes on the market, currently less than 300 properties out of an inventory of close to 9,700. "Do the math," instructs Forrest, who cites the old supply-and-demand adage. "We've got prices that are still increasing, maybe not as markedly as in the recent past. But, because of its location and makeup, Coronado has always maintained its strength."

If it's Wednesday, the real estate community is busy previewing new properties coming onto the market through "Broker's Open Houses." And on Sundays, noon to four, you'll find perhaps two dozen signs pointing to open houses throughout town.

"Open houses are important in the Coronado market," says Prudential Realtor Jan Clements. "A lot of people in town are visitors, and open houses allow them to get their bearings and a handle on prices here."

Realtor Vicki Inghram with Napolitano/GMAC Realty finds her business is really sizzling. "I closed five homes last week and thought 'Wow, now I'm going to have some recovery time.' It didn't happen. By Monday I had five more properties in escrow." Inghram said she recognized two years ago that buyers are looking for three things: condition, location and price. "All of my listings are in excellent condition - cleaned out, de-cluttered and beautiful," she says. "Buyers in our higher price range are demanding, savvy and expect beautiful homes in great condition."

Inghram also says that today's market requires innovative marketing. "My job is not to sell your house - it's to cause your house to sell," she says. "Usually when we start thinking that way; we get the price we want." Toward that end, Inghram referred one of her listings, a Cays home on Admiralty Cross, to auction. "It's this coming Saturday, and my client is thrilled. He knows his property will sell this Saturday and he knows he's going to get his price because two bids have already come in."

Who's buying these days? Basically the market is hot with buyers who hail from nearby hot (as in temperature) cities. "The Arizona market has always been strong for us," says Kathy Koop, Prudential California Realty. "Now Las Vegas is hot."

Gwen Hovland, a "Society of Excellence" Realtor with Coldwell Banker, says that after 20 years working in Coronado real estate she finds her clientele fall into two main categories. "We still have the hard-working young couples, double income, who want their kids to be in this school system, who want to walk our sidewalks and hear the wind chimes," says Hovland. "And then we have the second, third, fourth and even fifth home homeowners. "They'll have their main home and then they might have their vacation homes in Paris, New York, Texas and here."

Linda Lomas, a Cays resident for 30 years and also a Realtor with Coldwell Banker, agrees that there are many Cays residents who spend only a few months of the year in their "vacation" homes here, but unlike the Coronado Shores towers, few Cays residents rent out their homes to others. "The Cays are all built out now," says Lomas, herself a Cays resident for the past 30 years. "Now there's a lot of tear-downs and remodeling. It's strange to think some of these homes are as old as the Coronado Bridge."

One thing that keeps getting better and better in Coronado, according to Ruth Ann Fisher, a Realtor at Willis Allen, is the reputation of the public schools here. Test scores of students in the district are the highest of any public schools in the county, and all facilities, funded in large part by the city's Community Development Agency, are state-of-the-art.

"It's not just the parents of schoolage children who are attracted to schools here," says Fisher, "it's families who are buying a second home here and think that maybe they'll want to move here someday. And it's even retirees who know that a solid school system helps keep the resale value of their home high."

Schools, climate, proximity to San Diego's cultural facilities - no wonder that property values retain their strength in the land of Oz. After all, there's no place like home...there's no place like home...when home is Coronado, California.