Our summary of market statistics for San Diego County and for each of the I-15 Corridor communities has been updated. I’ll make a couple of obvious, general observations and, as always, leave the remainder of the interpretation to others.
- I am seeing a whole lot of the same compared to our last couple of updates. List prices remain relatively stable, but the price points of homes in escrow have come down. This gives us a clue as to who is buying right now, and of course who isn’t. Take Poway, for instance, where the average list price is $1,192,443 today versus an average list price of homes in escrow of $775,669.
- The number of homes in escrow has increased slightly in all cases, undoubtedly a reflection of seasonal factors. Numbers of escrows and sales, however, remain dramatically lower than we have been accustomed to over the past five years.
- Market times are for the most part up across the board: Actives, pendings and solds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kris Berg is Co-Owner and Designated Broker of San Diego Castles Realty. If not-so static web sites are your thing, go here at once where you will find loads of real estate information including homes for sale, market trends, floor plans and more. Kris's hobbies include fencing and spot welding. She likes kittens. 
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
My techy partner, Kris, likes to give us the cold hard statistics and “… leave the remainder of the intrepretation to others…”. Is this like the “Others” on Lost or what? I speak “Kris” so here is what I think she really wanted to say:
1. The market (at least in the I-15 Corridor communities of San Diego) remains very sluggish, with overall sales down significantly compared to last year. No surprise here. The downtrend in sales continues;
2. The time it takes to sell a home is somewhat misrepresented (unintentionally) by the MLS due to homes where the listing has expired and/or been cancelled and subsequently comes back on the market, many times within a day or two. The MLS shows these as new listings and does not add market time cumulatively for these homes. Bottom line: The stat’s are deceiving and the average market times are longer than shown.
3. It is clear that buyers are trying to hold the line on sales prices and are being very careful not to overspend. Their worst fear and their perception is that whatever purchase price they may buy at today may be less in six months for a comparable home.
4. “Discretionary” sellers (those who may want to sell, but don’t NEED to sell) are cluttering up the market to some degree. This just causes a further imbalance between the number of buyers and sellers by adding to an already bloated inventory.
5. The stat’s also confirm that many sellers still do not get it – “IT” being the value of their home. For example, we still see too many homes listed with a list price range of, say $850,000-$875,000, but with recent comp sales of between $750,000 and $775,000. What are they (and/or their agent) thinking??? I know, their home is SPECIAL.
6. Here’s some good news: The pool of potential buyers is growing every week. As they wait it out, thinking they may get better pricing, they unknowingly are allowing their own future competition to join them. We see it every week at our Open Houses and through internet inquiries. With more and more legitimate buyers standing on the sideline, at some point, it going to get very crowded, very soon.
The moral of the story is that right now both sides are being stubborn (maybe understandably stubborn). Those who get “smart” about the market will know a REASONABLE deal when they see it and they will have success. Believe me, decent deals are out their (particularly when you consider interest rates that are currently behaving themselves). Those who are greedy will significantly increase their risk of failure.
See, it’s not so hard to speak “Kris” afterall. Just common sense, especially if you’re an “Other”.
Off topic. I’m planning a trip to San Diego to meet my blog hosting staff in person around mid October. Internet Crusade in San Diego…not sure how close they are to you, but suggestions on hotels to stay (must have pool!) and maybe trying to meet up with you guys would be an added plus. I’ve never been to San Diego, except driving around it to get “Tee-Juana” once.
BTW, fabulous comment there, Steve!
Ardell – I would love the chance to meet up and will even buy the beverages of choice! Looks like they are close to La Mesa, if I Googled correctly, which isn’t too far from our stomping grounds. As for hotels, shoot me an email with your budget and travel-time tolerance, and we would be happy to give you some suggestions. You are about 15 minutes from 400 choices in Mission Valley, but if you are willing to go another 15 or 20 minutes west (traffic permitting), you can be a beach bum.