Green Real Estate Appraiser

San Diego Home Sales Down 8.6%

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

Median home prices are basically flat from last year, said CoreLogic. Sales remain low on a year-over-year basis in San Diego County and throughout California.

San Diego County’s home sales were down for the 11th month in a row in March, but home prices were still up slightly.

The median home price was $555,000 in March, said real estate tracker CoreLogic, a gain of 0.9 percent in a year. That’s down from a peak of $584,750 reached in August. In March, there were 3,224 home sales, down 8.6 percent from the same time a year ago.

Much of the slowdown has been attributed to rising mortgage rates, which started to move up in the latter part of 2018. Even with interest rates lowering substantially the first four months of 2019 though, buyers still face high prices in San Diego County, said Mark Goldman, an analyst with C2 Financial Corp.

“We still have affordability issues,” he said. “Wages aren’t going up, so that is going to stifle pricing.”

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Home prices fall in So Cal for the first time since 2012

Posted on April 29, 2019 | Leave a comment

The Southern California median home price dipped slightly in March from a year earlier, the first annual decrease since 2012 and a sign of a remarkable downshift from the once-sizzling regional housing market.

The 0.1% drop, reported Friday by CoreLogic, means prices for the six-county region were essentially flat year-over-year. But given a pullback in previous months, prices are $18,500 off their June 2018 peak, and that raises the possibility of a sustained decline in the months ahead.

The median price for new and resale houses and condos — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — was $518,500 in March, $500 less than a year earlier and off the all-time high of $537,000 reached in June.

The dip from March 2018 doesn’t mean values declined across the board. In fact, when broken down by county, the median dropped only in Orange County, while remaining areas — including Los Angeles County — still posted a slight or modest increase compared with a year earlier.

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How to stop your pool from draining your wallet

Posted on April 15, 2019 | Leave a comment

Tips for cutting pool power consumption

Switch to a variable speed pump: Analysis from the Department of the Environment and Energy revealed that a variable speed pump can cost twice to buy as much as a fixed speed pump, but half as much to run over the life of the pump, saving pool owners far more than the difference in the purchase price.
Take advantage of peak and off-peak pricing: Households that take advantage of time-of-use or flexible pricing for electricity will generally see the biggest savings by running pumps between 11pm and 7am. On the other hand, power will be the most expensive between 2pm and 8pm.
Adjust your maintenance schedule: Set your pool pump to the minimum runtime that still keeps the pool clean. Empty the skimmer basket regularly to maintain good water flow and reduce the load on the pump.