Here's more evidence, if more were needed, that the real estate markets of the Southwest are returning to some kind of normality. The number of "flippers" in the Southern California market has dropped to the lowest level since 2003, reports Bloomberg.

The new report says only (!) 3.2 percent of the region's homes were owned for six months or less before they were sold. That's down from 4.2 percent in 2005. It's not that big a big drop, which probably means that deals in the right place can still make money. And remember the flippers managed an average $45,000 profit on their deals. On the other hand, nearly one in four of these deals generated a loss.

We don't have any flipping numbers for Southern Nevada but the latest GLVAR figures are not promising: Earlier this week Business Press reported that the December sales figures were down some 32 percent from December 2005. The only good news is that prices are staying steady. Are sellers so savvy that they now know they have to wait for the next big boom to sell?