SAN DIEGO -- Home prices in San Diego County are slight up, but they may take a big dip in 2010 because of short sales, 10News reported.

Jason Janik has been trying to buy a home for several months. In August, he placed a bid on a short-sale home. The seller agreed to the price, but by the end of November the lenders still had not approved the deal.

"It was four months. Four months went by and it was not being able to look at anything else," said Janik.

A short sale is when a homeowner asks permission from their lender to sell their house for less than they owe on their loan. Despite the name, the process can take up to a year to complete, but many homeowners like it because they can avoid foreclosure.

Mortgage broker Dan Siegel estimated upwards of 50 percent of all the homes sold in San Diego in 2010 will be short sales.

"That way they don't go through the pain and the embarrassment of actually dealing with losing their home," said Siegel. "Foreclosures and short sales together probably represent close to 90 percent of the overall market."

That means more homes could sell well below what they're worth, making it harder for other homeowners to sell their homes at a profit.

"Most people who are in a position where they're not upside down, not in any kind of fiscal trouble, are really the minority in the market right now," said Siegel.

For Janik, the short-sale route took too long.

"When we started in August, we were pretty confident we'd be in a house before the holidays," said Janik.

The Obama administration is also pressuring banks to avoid foreclosing on people's homes and encouraging them to modify loans before homeowners get in trouble.