Homes and Real Estate Blog

The 4S Ranch real estate market, an upscale portion of the San Diego County market, showed signs of improvement and progress along with the rest of the region. According to a June 1, 2010 article from the San Diego News Room, “After a challenging year in 2009, the real estate market in San Diego County has seen much improvement in this first quarter of 2010. Within the first three months, the median price has improved month over month for both condos and single-family houses, and the year-to-date median price for all properties is significantly higher than it was in 2009.” The piece by Mark Marquez noted that “Best of all, even with higher prices, there are still large numbers of properties being sold and being sold quickly…It is likely that April will continue to be a busy month for the entire country, as everyone tried to close deals before the federal tax credit comes to an end.”

The possible rally of a previously extremely fragile sector of the Southern California may mean augmented stability for 4S Ranch houses for sale. According to a June 9, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times, “After nearly three years of declines there are signs that Southern California’s beaten-down commercial real estate market has struck bottom – setting up the possibility of a rebound later this year.” The piece, composed by Roger Vincent, went on to note that “In a sign of the easing, heavyweight investors armed with buckets of cash are on the prowl, looking to snap up office buildings, warehouses, shopping centers and apartments at the market’s low, industry observers say. The buyers are choosy, but the most desirable buildings elicit bidding wars when they come up for sale.”

The rate of sales in the Southern California declined for the first time in nearly two years, possibly a product of higher housing prices in the 4S Ranch market and other regions. According to a May 18, 2010 article from the Associated Press, “Home sales in Southern California declined last month for the first time in nearly two years, as buyers appeared to time their purchases to cash in on a state tax credit and supplies of affordable inland properties dwindled, a tracking firm reported Tuesday.”

The Del Mar real estate market, a small section of the larger San Diego County and Southern California housing markets, showed persistent signs of strength in the most recent tracking periods. According to a May 19, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times, “Southern California’s housing market held its ground in April, data released Tuesday show, with prices rebounding off their year-earlier lows but sales slipping for the first time in nearly two years as the number of fast-selling foreclosure properties dwindled considerably.” The piece by Alejandro Lazo went on to note that “The Southland saw a surge of people signing contracts for homes in April, according to data from the California Assn. of Realtors. Sales contracts for single-family homes in Los Angeles were up 27% in April from the same month last year. Contracts signed in April were up 9% in Anaheim, 33% in Santa Ana, 25% in San Diego, and 14% in Santa Monica.”

On the other hand, this news has a negative side, as Del Mar homes for sale have become more and more expensive and less affordable. According to a May 20, 2010 article in the San Diego Union Tribune, “San Diego housing grew slightly less affordable in the first quarter of the year as more higher-priced homes entered the market, the National Association of Home Builders reported Thursday. The NAHB’s Housing Opportunity Index for San Diego dropped from 46.7 from 48.1 in the fourth quarter and 58.8 in the first quarter of last year.” The piece by Roger Showley went on to note that “By this measurement, San Diego tied with Flagstaff, Ariz., as the 11^th least affordable housing market, down from 13^th in the fourth quarter, of 225 surveyed nationwide.”

A May 18, 2010 article from the Daily Transcript offered a much more positive prognosis for Del Mar real estate. The piece by Alan Nevin found that “Recently, the San Diego Association of Governments published a report on the future growth of San Diego County. The report noted that in the next 20 years the county will grow by more than 700,000 persons, a gain of more than 30,000 annually. Based on that analysis, more than 10,000 new households will be formed annually.”

A market that has seen much back and forth and confusion amid the housing crisis in the U.S., the San Diego real estate market continues to show mixed signals, though as of late the good have outweighed the bad, suggesting that perhaps the city’s real estate sectors has hit the bottom and may be on its way back to a state of normalcy.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, in December 2009, an index of housing prices showed that San Diego County’s home prices rose a slight 0.1% from the month preceding. This was the eight-consecutive month that the San Diego market showed an increase, the longest streak among 20 metro areas the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index monitors. The index showed that prices of San Diego homes for sale in December were up 2.7% from the same time one year earlier. The index, set at 100 for January 2000, stood at 156.29, up 8.2% from a low of 144.43 in April but still 7.6% below the record high of 250.34 set in November 2005.

Norm Miller, vice president at Costar Group, told the Union Tribune that the price per square foot fell nearly 5% in the fourth quarter of 2009, even though prices overall seemed to be rising, “Sellers are coming onto the market with slightly higher-quality properties or are being more optimistic,” Miller said. “And yet sold property prices are going down a little. So, we’re getting a gap again between buyers and sellers, and that means the inventory will start to build up again over the next couple of months — and that will continue and the market will soften a little more until we get to another wave of buyer tax credit expirations, which will hit late spring.”

In another sign for optimism, the county’s rates of foreclosures and defaults was also down from December 2009 to January 2010, though that’s not to say there aren’t any homeowners in trouble: There were 986 foreclosures and 1,741 default notices in January, down from 1,515 and 1,741, respectively, in December. Foreclosures were at their lowest level since May, while defaults were at the lowest rate since November 2008.