Category Archives: Real Estate

New Real Estates Laws for San Diego – 2022

There are new laws governing real estate — from emotional support animals to appraisal discrimination — that took effect at the start of this month and could make a big difference for renters and housing in general.

When an appraiser comes to a house to figure out its worth, there are a lot of things to consider — but skin color is not supposed to be one of them.

This new law is aimed at stopping discrimination over race, or bias, among appraisers. One highly publicized case in the San Francisco Bay Area has a Black family suing an appraiser after they felt they were given a lower appraisal value. Their evidence? They asked a White friend to pretend to be the homeowner for a second appraisal and saw their home’s value increase by more than $500,000.

Home Owner Association emails:

If it seems like you get a lot of mail from your homeowner association, you probably aren’t alone.

This state senate bill requires an HOA to send materials by email if that is preferred by an individual member. They can still get everything by snail mail if they want, and if you don’t tell your HOA, the default will stay snail mail.

read more at: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2022-01-14/new-real-estate-laws-affect-san-diego-renters-landlords-and-homeowners

San Diego – Gains in Area Home Prices Decelerating

San Diego continued to slide down in rankings of the nation’s hottest real estate markets in October.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices reported Tuesday that San Diego metro saw a 24.2 percent home price gain in a year, making it the sixth fastest-growing market in 20-city index. San Diego had been in the top two markets in the closely watched index for most of 2021.

Nationwide prices showed signs of finally cooling after record-setting pandemic gains, so San Diego metro (which includes all of San Diego County) was not alone in showing a slight deceleration. U.S. average home prices are still up 19.1 percent in a year.

read more at: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2021-12-28/compared-to-the-rest-of-the-nation-san-diego-home-prices-gains-decelerate

Analyst Famous for Pres-crash 2007 Housing Warnings is Concerned Again

Ivy Zelman is cautioning clients that overheated areas with heavy concentrations of investors are likely to face “corrections.”

After a historic run-up in values during the pandemic, housing in the U.S. is at — or near — the peak, she says. She’s cautioning clients that overheated areas with heavy concentrations of investors, including Phoenix, are likely to face “corrections.” A modest rise in 30-year mortgage rates, even to 4%, would bring demand to a halt, according to Zelman.

Cracks are already appearing: The pace of price growth nationwide has started to slow, and in Covid boomtowns such as Boise, Idaho, and Salt Lake City, bidding wars are suddenly giving way to discounts.

Zelman, 55, isn’t forecasting a nationwide crash on the scale of the last bubble, which was magnified by risky subprime mortgage lending. But the signs of trouble look familiar, she says: Investors are distorting the market by driving up prices beyond the reach of primary buyers, and builders with growing construction pipelines are bidding up land values.

The risk is that investors — from iBuyers to private equity firms acquiring and building single-family homes for rent — get spooked and start selling, overloading the market with supply. By the time builders finish homes they’ve now just started, demand may no longer be there, she says.

“If I’m a homebuyer right now,” Zelman says, “I want to wait because I think we’ve gotten to a level that’s not sustainable.”

read more at: https://www.wealthmanagement.com/investment-strategies/housing-analyst-famous-pre-crash-warnings-concerned-again