A Balancing San Diego Market

A Realty Times article by Carla L. Davis paints a changing picture for the San Diego real estate market. Here are excerps from the article...

San Diego realtors report that the market is leveling “The market today has swung into balance with cautious buyers and many choices of homes in the San Diego, California, area,” comments one local Realtor. "Currently there are over 13,000 homes on the market in San Diego. This is a huge increase over the all-time low of 2,301 homes in March 2004. To put this all in perspective, the record high inventory of 19,000 homes was reached in July 1995 when massive layoffs and a laborious recession forced 1000's workers to exit San Diego."

He continues, "A majority of homes in San Diego that were once $300,000 a few years ago, now sell close to $500,000 (about a 15 percent per year increase). However, there are definitely less offers than before -- no longer 20 offers per property. We see many more 100 percent financing offers than ever. Residential properties above $1,000,000 are more negotiable than those under $600,000. As to be expected, there are several pockets where homes are hard to find while in other areas it seems to be more difficult to find buyers."

"In San Diego the talk between the Realtors I come into contact with is that the market appears to be changing into a more balanced market which is the market the Realtors that I have come into contact seem to be hoping for. The locale news has said a few times that the market appears to be changing to a buyer's market," relates another San Diego Realtor.

He adds, "In my opinion the market seems strong, though home prices do not seem to be escalating at the pace they were, a pace I never dreamed of but prices seem to be tapering off a bit. I do not think prices are lowering they are just adjusting some from their already extremely escalated levels. We still have the supply and demand issue in the county but it is mainly a problem for the first time home buyer, we just have more of a demand then supply of affordable housing. This should fuel the lower priced home market for a while."

Yet another Realtor notes the same leveling effect, "Unit sales volume (demand) has decreased by 12.7 percent. When you just look at single family homes the average price for July was $641,895 which was a 9.1 percent increase from last July. However, again unit sales declined by 11.8 percent period to period."

"Overall demand for the year still looks good for around 40,000 homes sold, very respectful," he notes "The average inventory days are 125 days, but in the $500k range you are at 86 days, the lowest of all price ranges. Other segments of the market explode over 200 days, there will be serious pricing problems here for the sellers that have to sell."