Myself and others have had thoughts and observations about the new year, and what is happening around town.  Here are a few:

1.  Prices are moving much faster than normal.

2.  Prices would have dropped much faster, and bottomed earlier, without government intervention.  Are we just catching up now?

3.  The media has a limited vocabulary, and uses the word “bubble” very generously – you’ll be hearing it a lot this year.

4.  As long as 1-year t-bills are paying 0.14%, investors will keep buying real estate.

5.  “Renting is looking more and more attractive.”

6.  “OK, will wait on the sidelines.”

7.  “The problem is that all the prime ones have so many buyers.  It’s no fun to go into bidding wars on any property that remotely looks interesting.  Another Solana Beach villa (3bd/2ba) with a range of 390k/410k went pending in 2 days.  Looks like we may not have got the one we offered even at $325k…  It’s getting crazy.”

(we had offered full price $295,000 cash for this 2br/2ba, 1,120sf condo and lost – there were eight realtor business cards left there in less than 24 hours, and it wasn’t on the market previously).

8.  It is early in the season for the market to be this hot.

9.  We see multiple sets of buyers at every new listing.

10. Alta Del Mar is “disappointing, and over-priced”. (Grand opening is March 9th but they are pre-selling)

11.  Jakob commented yesterday, “Interesting times.  For Dec, there were 3281 sales in San Diego County, highest Dec on record, and just 2551 new listings, lowest Dec on record. So record high sales, record low listings.”
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We are off to a strong start too, though the statistical price increase over two years seems reasonable compared to the bidding wars we see everywhere.

Here are the San Diego County residential sales closed between January 1-15:

Year #Sales Avg $/sf
2011
922
$225/sf
2012
853
$220/sf
2013
923
$250/sf

Select a realtor who has frenzy experience!

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