Tag Archives: san diego

Cool Thing – Helping Out Homeless Vets

Posted on October 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

Finding a safe haven can be twice as hard for San Diego’s homeless veterans who have children, because the city’s shelters are often no place for kids.

Since 1998, Veterans Village of San Diego has offered a small apartment complex to fill that need. But the 1960s-era stucco building, on an older section of Imperial Avenue, needed a little love.

The Home Depot Foundation swooped in Wednesday. About 130 orange-shirt-wearing volunteers from Home Depot stores in San Diego County spent the day painting and installing cabinets, sinks and ceiling fans. They even replaced burned-out light bulbs.

It was part of the home-improvement chain’s third-annual Celebration of Service drive, which runs from Sept. 11 to Veterans Day and encompasses 350 projects nationwide worth a collective $3 million.

This year, the Home Depot Foundation is focusing on female veterans and those with families.

At the Imperial Avenue complex, one of the new sinks is in the unit occupied by former Army medic Lawanda Sullivan, who enlisted straight from high school and served for seven years.

Want to get involved? Join Southern California Appraisal Services and volunteer with Habitat for Humanity www.habitatsdiego.org or join other local groups and help people in your community get housing.

After getting out in 2004, her life slowly crumbled, partly because of a poor economy and the challenges of single motherhood. She lost her job with the closing of the doctor’s office where she worked. She got evicted from her home. Alcohol became an issue. Finally, her boyfriend’s family put her out on the street.

San Diego – Home Prices, Sales Slip In August

Posted on September 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

San Diego County home prices and sales slipped from July to August as the market took a breather from recent increases, DataQuick reported Thursday.

The median price last month was $415,000, down from $417,500 in July but still up 20.2 percent from year-ago levels.

Sales also were lower, down 9.5 percent from July to 4,099 transactions, a common seasonal dip. Total sales are up 3 percent from August 2012.

Has the value dipped in your neighborhood? In some neighborhoods in San Diego value can differ from the county statistics. Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your home value or your real estate appraisal needs.

DataQuick President John Walsh said the trends, generally consistent across the six-county Southern California region, reflect fewer all-cash and investor buyers, still-tight inventory and rising mortgage rates.

“There’s something for everyone in today’s housing data,” Walsh said in a statement. “Sellers have seen an amazing price jump from just a year ago, allowing many to finally sell at a profit.”

Freddie Mac’s weekly primary mortgage market survey, also released Thursday, showed the 30-year, fixed-rate loan unchanged at 4.57 percent from last week, not counting origination fees. The most recent low was 3.4 percent in April.

“As we head into fall and winter, a slower time of year,” Walsh said, “we’ll probably see year-over-year price gains continue to taper.”

Michael Lea, a real estate professor at San Diego State University, said he was not surprised by the price dip but was “a little puzzled” that sales are not rising as fast as they should at this point in the economic cycle. “I would have thought sales would be picking up,” he said.

Doing Math On Homebuying – Is it a good time to stop renting and buy?

Posted on September 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

San Diego County Rental Stats

Sep-12 Sep-13 % change

Average monthly rental rate $1,377 -$1,475 7.1%

Average square footage 870- 873 0.3%

Average price per $1.58 – $1.69 7.0%

Vacancy rate 4.50%- 4.61% 2.4%

Source: MarketPointe Realty Advisors

Pros of renting:

• Greater mobility. Selling or buying a home has transaction cost and can take time.

• You can call the landlord for repairs

• There’s no resale risk. While home prices have been rising in San Diego County, there’s no guarantee that the value will increase over time.

Cons of renting:

• The landlord can kick you out if, for example, he or she decides to sell the place

• No equity is built up: “Renting is throwing money away,” said Linda Lee, president of San Diego Association of Realtors.

• You can’t paint or remodel without the owner’s permission

Rates near historic lows

The monthly average 30-year, fixed mortgage rate rose nearly one percentage point from May to August to 4.46 percent, according to Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage buyer. However, mortgage rates are still near historic lows. Throughout the 1980s, for example, they ranged from 9 percent to 18 percent.

For the San Diego metro area, mortgage rates would have to climb to 7.3 percent for renting to be cheaper than buying, according to a Trulia report released Thursday. Trulia calls this the mortgage-rate tipping point. The last time 30-year fixed mortgage rates were that high was about 12 years ago, according to Freddie Mac.

By comparison, the mortgage rate tipping point is 7 percent for Orange County, 5.7 percent for the San Francisco metro area and 5.2 percent for the San Jose metro area.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only