San Diego – Median home prices hit new high in August

Sept. 26–San Diego County’s median home price hit an all-time high of $583,000 in August, real estate tracker CoreLogic reported Wednesday.

The previous record was $579,750 in July. Home prices have been reaching new records for several months, which analysts attribute to job growth, a strong economy and tight inventory.

The big picture: Despite the record-breaking price, sales have been down for months. There were 3,753 home sales in August, down from 4,120 at the same time in 2017 and 4,124 in 2016. A lack of sales can point to financial difficulty for potential buyers, and has a secondary effect of slowing work for many of the jobs connected to the real estate industry.

Andrew LePage, data analyst for CoreLogic, said a lack of affordable homes for sale was one of the main reasons for the summer slowdown.

“Unlike the frenzied market of the mid-2000s,” LePage wrote, “would-be homebuyers today don’t have access to the sort of risky subprime and other loans that fueled a lot of

the homebuying late in the last economic cycle.”

LePage said an increase in mortgage rates was also a factor in a decrease in sales.

Read more at:  https://www.marketscreener.com/CORELOGIC-INC-6275906/news/New-record-San-Diego-home-price-hits-583K-27324857/

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San Diego Resale Home Price Gains Slow

Existing home prices in July for the San Diego metropolitan area increased 6.2 percent in a year, its slowest pace since January 2017, said the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices released Tuesday.

San Diego’s price increases were the second-slowest in the West, only ahead of Portland, said the index which studies the metropolitan areas of 20 major cities. The San Diego region still slightly outpaced the national average of 6 percent.

The indices evaluate home prices by more than just price, tracking repeat sales of identical single-family houses as they turn over through the years. It is a favorite of economists, who use it to get a more complete view of the market instead of just the median home price.

Price increases have slowed throughout much of the nation, with experts citing a variety of reasons: A gain in the number of homes for sale, rising mortgage interest rates and rent growth slowing, which may limit some pressure to buy.

“A slight autumn chill has fallen over the housing market, and after an incredibly hot past few years, it’s probably fair to say the cool down is a welcome development for many would-be home buyers,” Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas wrote,

Las Vegas led yearly price increases at 13.7 percent, followed by Seattle at 12.1 percent and San Francisco at 10.8 percent.

read more at: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/real-estate/sd-fi-case-shiller-20180925-story.html#

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California home sellers slash prices

After three years of soaring home prices, the heat is coming off the U.S. housing market. Home sellers are slashing prices at the highest rate in at least eight years, especially in the West, where the price gains were hottest.

In the four weeks ended Sept. 16, more than one-quarter of the homes listed for sale had a price drop, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage. That is the highest level since the company began tracking the metric in 2010. Redfin defines a price drop as a reduction in the list price of more than 1 percent and less than 50 percent.

“While home prices continued to rise modestly in August, the deceleration in price growth and the surge in housing supply suggest that a market shift is underway,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, senior vice president and chief economist at the California Realtors group. “We are seeing active listings increasing and more price reductions in the market, and as such, the question remains, ‘How long will it take for the market to close the price expectation gap between buyers and sellers?'”

The price gap may close even more quickly if mortgage rates continue their trend higher. The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage loan is up more than a quarter of a percentage point in the past month and is knocking on the door of 5 percent, a level not seen in nearly a decade.

read more at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/home-sellers-are-slashing-prices-especially-in-california.html

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