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San Diego home prices in April to outpace nation, state

Posted on June 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

San Diego County home prices in April continued to outpace the rest of the state and nation for the third month in a row, said the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices released Tuesday.

The indices, adjusted for seasonal swings, showed San Diego County home prices rose 6.6 percent in a year. Prices increased 5.5 percent nationwide, down from 5.8 percent in March and missing some analysts’ expectations.

Los Angeles prices increased 5.3 percent in the same time period and San Francisco by 5 percent. Of the 20 major regions followed by the indices, San Diego ranked No. 8 in April, above Chicago, New York, Miami, Washington, D.C., and other markets.

Low mortgage rates and lack of homes for sale throughout the nation are continuing to push prices up, wrote David Blitzer, managing chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in the monthly report.

“The question is not if home prices can climb without any limit; they can’t,” he wrote. “Rather, will home price gains gently slow or will they crash and take the economy down with them?”

Blitzer wrote that a crash will likely be avoided, at the moment, because housing starts are trending higher and rising prices may encourage some owners to sell. Also, nationwide outstanding mortgage debt — $14.4 trillion — is about $400 billion below the record set in 2008.

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San Diego home Price hits new record

Posted on June 22, 2017 | Leave a comment

sd home price

The San Diego County median home price hit $530,000 in May, breaking the nominal record set last month and increasing 8.2 percent in a year, real estate tracker CoreLogic reported Wednesday.

Lack of homes for sale and slowed home construction appear to be major forces in new peaks set over the past few months leading into the traditional busy summer buying season.

In real terms, May’s numbers still are far off the peaks of the housing boom. When adjusted for inflation, the county nominal November 2005 peak of $517,500 equates to roughly $644,500 in 2016 dollars.

Alan Gin, economist at University of San Diego, said it is likely that nominal records will continue to be broken as the summer continues, especially with a strong economy and low unemployment rate.

“Construction is still lagging badly. There’s just not enough housing,” Gin said. “High demand and low supply mean higher prices.”

In May, there were 5,060 homes listed for sale in San Diego County, up by 279 from April but substantially below historic levels for the month, said the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. There were 5,913 listings in May last year, 6,658 in 2015 and 7,029 in 2014.

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Redfin tries out 1% home listing fee in San Diego

Posted on June 9, 2017 | Leave a comment

Real estate website and brokerage Redfin has launched a 1 percent listing fee in San Diego that could save home sellers hundreds of dollars in commission costs.

It’s not the first time the website has rolled out the feature — or the only city — but this is its first time in California. It previously had an already below average listing rate of 1.5 percent.

Low listing fees are often associated with agencies that don’t do as much for clients. But, Redfin says its business model allows it to charge less and do as good of a job as traditional agencies.

The typical listing fee is about 2.5 percent, which can mean thousands of dollars in a high-priced market, and also usually means an additional 2.5 percent for the buyer’s agent.

For a San Diego County median priced home of $525,000, a buyer would typically expect to spend around $26,000 in commission fees. Under Redfin’s deal, one could conceivably save nearly $8,000.

Redfin spokeswoman Alina Ptaszynski said the move is possible because of its emphasis on technology and a different real estate agent model.

“We’re delivering the same level of service — we would argue higher level of service,” she said.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

San Diego home prices in April to outpace nation, state

San Diego home Price hits new record

Redfin tries out 1% home listing fee in San Diego

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