Category Archives: Real Estate

San Diego median home price hits all-time high of $594k

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

Dwindling home inventory and low mortgage interest rates have led to large price increases across Southern California

San Diego County’s median home price hit an all-time high of $594,455, pushed up by declining inventory and dropping interest rates.

Like much of Southern California, the county has seen sales increase as mortgage interest rates started dropping in the spring and competition heated up. The previous high in the county was $590,000 in June, according to CoreLogic data provided by DQNews.

The median home price has increased 5.2 percent in a year, a turnaround from a few months ago when prices were down year-over-year by 1 percent. With 3,180 closed transactions in November, sales were up 8.6 percent from the same time last year when interest rates were much higher.

San Diego County home prices higher by 2.8%

Posted on November 27, 2019 | Leave a comment

San Diego area home prices ticked up 2.8 percent annually in September, perhaps signaling that fears of a looming housing slowdown earlier this year were overblown.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index — a leading measure of U.S. home prices — found that the September year-over-year home price gains in San Diego mirrored the trend nationally.

Case-Shiller data released Tuesday put overall home price increases across the U.S. at 3.2 percent in September compared with the same month last year. Phoenix led the way for September with 6 percent annual gain. Charlotte hit 4.6 percent and Tampa posted a 4.5 percent increase.

Fewer homebuyers stuck paying above the asking price

Posted on November 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

For homebuyers and sellers, the original list price is the conversation starter, yet rarely the final word – only about 15% of homes in the largest metro areas sold for the seller’s original asking price during 2019’s second quarter, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic.

Discounted sale prices occurred on 61% of homes sold, Corelogic reported, up from 57% in late 2018.

Tight markets subject to bidding wars and sale prices above the ask, of course, get the most attention these days. And those conditions continue, to varying degrees, in San Francisco. Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., according to Corelogic data.

But sale prices below the list price were common in Miami (80% of sales below list), Chicago and Houston (70%) and other major markets. Buyers and sellers need to be aware of the new reality.

Another real estate company, Knock.com, which helps people buy and sell with bridge financing, expects discounts to list price to increase in 2019’s fourth quarter. Two in three home sales in the quarter will come in below the list price, and the average discount will be near 4%, Knock estimates.

Knock predicts that more than 80% of home sales in Miami will come in under the list price, and the average discount will be near 6%. In Chicago, Houston, New Orleans and Hartford, at least 75% of home sales are expected to be at a final price that is below the original list price. The average discount in those markets is forecast to be about 5%.

The cause isn’t a soft market. Of the aforementioned areas, only Chicago price gains have failed to keep pace with inflation over the past year. Some of the markets where buyers are enjoying strong negotiating leverage are also among the best for first-time homebuyers.