More data released today indicating higher pricing for April and May.

The news has been upbeat all year, and sellers have been adapting well.

According to the Dept of Numbers, San Diego’s 75th percentile asking price has risen 24% in the last 12 months:

The low-inventory of active listings is deceiving, because we’ve had almost the identical number of properties listed year-to-date, as we did last year (roughly 28,500 listings of all property types between Jan 1 – June 3).

The difference is that buyers are snatching up everything that seems reasonably priced to them, picking up many homes that would have been considered OPTs last year.

But the hottest action appears to have been earlier this year – and the relative change in Y-O-Y sales has been slowing recently.  In the first-quarter, there were 8.4% more sales closed than last year, but the April/May period only rose 1.8%:

Buyers started earlier in the year, are racing faster to buy, and are paying more money.  But sales are a leading indicator, and pricing is a lagging indicator.

The more-moderate increase in Y-O-Y sales recently is a sign that either buyers got a quicker start this year, or that slowing has commenced. The continuous run-up in asking prices is the likely cause for both.

The 75th-percentile asking price of $869,000 is higher than 2006/2007!