The new Alta Del Mar neighborhood in Carmel Valley is providing some guidance for the rest of San Diego’s North County Coastal region.

There are 100+ people on the ADM lender-pre-approved list to pay $2,000,000 to $2,500,000 for semi-custom tract houses.  Those on the list will get sorted out as Pardee drips out a few houses here and there over the next 2-3 years. In the meantime, they are still shopping around.

Here’s what they see:

All the other 92130 tract houses are cozying up under $2,000,000, with virtually no houses left under $1,000,000.  After holding steady at around $330/sf for the last few years, the Carmel Valley detached homes closed this year are already averaging $350/sf, and screaming higher.  The average list price of pendings is $378/sf, and not many sellers have to settle for less.

Those in Del Mar proper feel mighty superior to that inland Alta Del Mar, plus they don’t appreciate them stealing the tony Del Mar name – and obviously someone must pay. Virtually everything west of Crest Rd. starts around $2.5 million now.  Same for those sellers west of Nardo in Solana Beach.

La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe?  If you want a good-quality estate in either town, expect to pony up $3,000,000+, and most everything under $2,000,000 needs work.

Cardiff, Encinitas, and Carlsbad offer some relief price-wise, but anything decent flies off the market quickly.  The 92024 solds are averaging $394/sf this year, and Carlsbad’s 92011 solds are $319/sf, both 10% higher than last year’s average.