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A view of the eastbound 56 freeway, then turn north on I-5 at 5:30 in the afternoon:

Just the fact that so many more higher-end sales are closing these days is noteworthy, the NSD County Coastal sales of detached $1,000,000+ homes have increased 55% on a year-over-year comparison (and if you take out La Jolla, the others increased a total of 79%!)

Let’s chart the $1,000,000-plus market. Here are the number of active and pending detached listings, the 2009 and 2010 closed sales between Jan. 1 and March 10th, and the number of trustee sales YTD of SFRs that have a Foreclosureradar value of at least $1,000,000:

Sales are healthier, how does pricing compare?

Price will fix anything!

It looks like servicers are coasting into the HAFA/short-sale era, which officially begins April 5th. Here are the foreclosure stats from the last 12 weeks:

My guess?  The HAFA package will encourage borrowers to pick a lane – either loan modification or short-sale.  But there are probably enough strategic defaulters to keep it busy down at the court house steps, but so far there have been very few quality properties at attractive opening bids.  I’m checking the list everyday, and I haven’t gone down to the ’steps once this year!

We’ve been talking about how the quality of schools are critical to the homebuying equation.  Here are the local public high schools, sorted by their totals of four scores from www.greatschools.net:

While it used to be that Torrey Pines had an edge on others around the county, it is remarkable how similar the scores are among the top five schools. I think you also have to hand it to San Marcos HS for making the strides they’ve made too.

With the scores bunching together, how else do you decide? The greatschools website has remarks from parents and students, but you never know what agenda they might be pushing.

P.S. Catholic schools do the same testing, but refuse to release their scores – but the website has testimonials on CCHS, and not all are flattering.

Hymettus is one of the more prominent streets in Leucadia, but there haven’t been any sales there since summer. So two older sales on Hymettus are included, the first closed in July, 2009, and the second was January, 2009:

I hesitated with the first story, but it demonstrates how a life-changing event at the wrong time can be very costly.

A few more recent sales around Carmel Valley, and how they compared to model-match sales at peak:

From the U-T:

San Diegans who have lost their homes through foreclosure or short-sales thought they had emerged from the dark times and could start rebuilding their lives.

Then the state tax man came calling.

With less than six weeks before taxes are due, an estimated 16,000 former homeowners statewide will owe $15 million in extra income taxes this year and $29 million through 2012.

The tax applies to what is called the “cancellation of debt” that occurs when property owners lose their homes through foreclosure or arrange a short-sale in which they sell for less than the mortgage balance. The lender sends them a form itemizing the forgiven debt, and the amount is subject to income tax.

Congress exempted most homeowners from the extra federal tax through 2012, and the state followed suit for 2007 and 2008 but did not extend the provision last year. The state Assembly may vote tomorrow on a bill to repeal the tax, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed such a bill last year over unrelated provisions.

“They’re probably stuck,” San Diego tax attorney Bob Kevane said of former homeowners facing the tax. “The biggest way around it is if you’re insolvent.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Hat tip to Steve for sending this biomed/VC article along:

How has San Diego’s biomedical industry, arguably the region’s key economic sector, been weathering the downturn, and what’s its outlook for the future?

According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the California Healthcare Institute (CHI), the industry has suffered along with the rest of the economy, but remains resilient.  Nevertheless, storm clouds loom on the horizon, especially in the form of regulatory and reimbursement issues.

For several years, PWC has partnered with CHI, which advocates on behalf of the Golden State’s biomed industry, to produce the annual study.  It reveals that, in San Diego, venture capital has fallen from a recent high of $1.9 billion in 2007 to $900 million in 2009—a 50 percent decrease that’s slightly worse than the national and statewide fall in seed money.  A similar drop-off occurred in investments directed specifically at life science ventures.

Unsurprisingly, though, San Diego far outpaces the rest of the state in investments in biomedical companies as a percentage of total venture funding.  Unlike in Silicon Valley, where only a quarter of every seed dollar goes to life sciences, the proportion here is more than two-thirds.  Statewide, the computer (hardware, software, and services) industry employs about as many people as the life sciences sector, both of which dwarf any other industry in California.

But perhaps most encouraging is that nearly two-thirds of all venture investments in San Diego are in startup or early stages, far exceeding the national average and auguring positive future developments here.

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This article has San Diego ranked seventh in the nation for venture capital:

METRO AREAS BY RANK
RankMetro AreaScore
1. San Francisco 5.50%
2. Seattle 2.71%
3. Austin 1.83%
4. Boston 1.53%
5. Raleigh-Durham 1.35%
6. Denver 1.20%
7. San Diego 1.01%
8. Grand Rapids 0.49%
9. Washington 0.44%
10. Portland 0.43%
11. Atlanta 0.42%
12. Minneapolis 0.42%
13. Los Angeles 0.36%
14. Orlando 0.34%
15. St. Louis 0.34%
16. New York 0.33%
17. Las Vegas 0.30%
18. Miami 0.29%
19. Rochester 0.29%
20. Nashville 0.24%
21. Chicago 0.23%
22. Philadelphia 0.23%
23. Phoenix 0.22%
24. Dallas 0.20%

Here’s a tour of Derby Hill, the Pardee tract of big bombers south of the 56 freeway. In the MLS remarks of the only model listed, it said that the furniture did not convey. The house across the street (towards the end of video) that’s mentioned as pending, listed for $1,449,000, had multiple offers and just closed escrow a couple of days ago – full price:

The recent Mustang Ridge resales on video:

A. The $1,337,500 was 2% under price the seller had paid, but buyers’ were represented by father who may have kicked in commission.

B. The $1,335,000 was $100,000 over what seller paid in March, 2007.

C. The $1,449,000 was $6,000 under what seller paid in March, 2007.

Yes, they had paid for improvements during their stay, plus closing costs.