The national existing-home sales in March increased by 3.7% over the previous month’s total, which makes sense as the spring buying season got rolling.
Nationally the March sales were down 6.3% year-over-year, and median price was down 5.9%.
How did we do locally?
To generate bigger samples, and to test out more of the tax-credit influence, these are the detached sales and pricing from March 1st to April 15th:
| Town | Zip | 2010 | 2011 |
| Cardiff | 92007 | 8/$601 | 11/$416 |
| Carlsbad NW | 92008 | 22/$333 | 22/$313 |
| Carlsbad SE | 92009 | 88/$271 | 70/$257 |
| Carlsbad NE | 92010 | 12/$262 | 15/$233 |
| Carlsbad SW | 92011 | 21/$312 | 25/$297 |
| Del Mar | 92014 | 13/$781 | 20/$597 |
| Encinitas | 92024 | 44/$348 | 44/$335 |
| La Jolla | 92037 | 35/$658 | 39/$563 |
| RSF | 67+91 | 19/$463 | 33/$431 |
| Solana Bch | 92075 | 6/$442 | 6/$708 |
| West RB | 92127 | 52/$266 | 55/$273 |
| East RB | 92128 | 66/$281 | 59/$266 |
| RP | 92129 | 56/$286 | 43/$256 |
| Carmel Vly | 92130 | 52/$333 | 55/$345 |
| Scripps Rch | 92131 | 42/$281 | 40/$264 |
| Total | All Above | 536/$342 | 537/$333 |
| Total | All SD Co. | 2,759/$248 | 2,608/$239 |
Overall, our market is holding up well, in spite of no tax credit this year. SE Carlsbad, 92009 is still struggling, but sales are up sharply in the Ranch, and Carmel Valley continues to see strong sales and higher average pricing.
If I ran the numbers right, Del Mar, Solana Beach and Rancho Santa Fe all have over a year of non-foreclosure supply at current rates, while Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, and Scripps Ranch are all below four months of supply. Is that typical?
Yes, I’d say typical historically.
DM, SB, and RSF were running higher (12-18 months) a couple of years ago.
Most of the market included in the list likely aren’t tax credit type markets but the couple that are RP, Carlsbad SE, etc. did take a bit of a hit. Still within what you’d expect. Down, but not down bad.
Seems like it really boils down to do you get a slightly better house by waiting to buy in today’s market or was it worth it to rush in last year to beat the deadline. You didn’t really profit from rushing to beat the deadline. Is it better now or was it better then. Seems like there were more flips available back then so maybe the quality was a little better but price was higher.
livingcali, valid point … you can actually project it from present to future also … would you rather buy the “better house, meeting most of your specs” available today at today’s price point or would you rather pass it and try to get a better deal in the coming months (assuming this one is sold and no longer available).