NIU students considering looking for jobs on the golden West Coast of California and other Pacific Coast states might not want to get their hopes up before “going west, young man.”

Markets there will be mostly flat. The West should benefit from job and population growth, but housing prices are still out of line with incomes.

California will be soft on average, with declines in coastal cities—even San Francisco. In Los Angeles there have been as few as two buyers for every 15 listings, says Gordon T. Carey, a branch sales manager with Coldwell Banker in Woodland Hills, Calif.

The Pacific Northwest will be hurt by California’s fallout. Seattle in particular was already hitting the wall as 1990 drew to a close. Portland, however, should remain upbeat with a possible 3 to 5 percent appreciation.

One area where growth is likely to continue is Hawaii. Tourism there continues to fuel an already strong economy.

Mortgages could be tougher to get in 1991, particularly for first-time home buyers. Lenders responding to regulatory pressures will be checking credit histories and job security more carefully and demanding higher down-payments. A Changing Times survey of Century 21 and Coldwell Banker real estate brokers in 25 U.S. cities confirms that lenders in some cities are shying away from 5 percent down payments. Ten percent will be more common, particularly in the trade-up market. In addition, expected changes in Federal Housing Administration rules will increase the amount of cash needed to close an FHA-insured loan by about 10 to 20 percent ($560 on a $65,000 mortgage with 10 percent down and 2 percent in closing costs). The rules also add a monthly insurance premium of roughly $25.

Those changes will be partly offset by sellers’ willingness to pay a greater share of closing costs. Allowances for repairs and upgrades are also becoming more common.