There were 182 NSDCC listings in January, as of today – which means we have a clear winner, even if a few more listings get added by late-reporters.
Congratulations Rob Dawg!
The season starts on March 30th, and May looks like a great month to attend a game. What might be the two best giveaways of the season (vs. the Reds and the Royals) happen that month, plus the Dodgers make their first visit back to Petco Park.
Dawg’s favorite team, the Red Sox, also return in May!
The summary of guesses, with some additions from the FB page:
16 Noodle
89 Momento
99 Tom
104 BWell_SoCal
111 Majeed
115 Lifeisradincbad
117 Susie
119 Beachside
120 Curtis
128 Joe
130 Rob
136 Skip
140 Haile
142 MC
146 Derek
152 Drew
158 Susan
160 doughboy
165 Kingside
174 SurfRider
175 Sciguy 186 Rob Dawg
190 Bode
200 Jeff Campbell
203 Lauren Stickelman
213 Shadash
252 Aunt Nancy
262 Eddie89
298 Nick
333 Sherman Messing
149 Median
This was the first time that the actual count of January listings landed in the upper third of the guesses. But don’t get giddy about the inventory just yet – here’s how it compares:
NSDCC January Listings:
2018: 426
2019: 418
2020: 354
2021: 289
2022: 223
2023: 182
The lack of choices is what causes hyper-frenzy conditions – it causes buyers to freak out. When a top-quality listing hits the market, buyers feel like this might be their only chance this month, or this year, to buy such a good match to their needs – and then the lack of transparency makes them go nuts.
It’s going to be a wild and crazy season – and not just for the Padres!
In the last couple of years, we’ve followed how many new listings happen in January. It’s been a good indicator of what to expect for the Spring Selling Season!
Here is some historical perspective (below). I included the stats from 2009, which was the last time the sky was falling and nobody wanted to sell their house. I would gladly take those numbers now!
For those who were thinking it’s so bad that January’s count might be single digits, there has already been seven new listings this year – though four of them were refreshed listings from last year.
Number of Listings Between La Jolla and Carlsbad
Year
Previous November
Previous December
January
1st Qtr
1st Half
2009
340
259
458
1,422
2,873
2019
292
234
418
1,280
2,716
2020
257
177
354
1,085
2,309
2021
240
181
289
986
2,171
2022
166
127
223
730
1,707
2023
141
82
7
?
?
Leave your guess in the comment section of the number of January listings, and whoever is closest to the actual count on February 15th will receive four tickets to a Padres game in 2023! This isn’t a fancy way for me to get your contact information and keep calling you until you buy or die. You don’t even have to leave your contact information – just check back on February 15th.
Reasons why January’s inventory will be LOWER than expected:
Sellers will wait until the market gets ‘better’.
Sellers will wait until somebody else goes first.
Sellers are distracted by a big playoff run by the Chargers.
Reasons why January’s inventory will be HIGHER than expected:
Panic selling – sellers who want to get out early in the season.
More boomers are getting older every year.
Realtors refreshing their listings more often.
There is no evidence that there will be a surge of hundreds of listings. Though there are more active listings today than there were at this time last year (265 vs 152), it only means the 4Q22 selling success rate was lower than in the frenzy years.
The guesses from last year’s contest:
142 The other Bob
181 Eddie89
201 Daniel Nicolas
210 Drew
215 Joe 222Majeed
230 Lifeisradincbad (he was a winner in 2021)
237 Curtis Kaiser
245 doughboy
250 Deckard Mehdy
259 Susie
260 Derek (the other winner in 2021)
270 Skip
278 Haile
286 Matt
290 Esteban del Rio
294 Tom
295 Rob Dawg
300 BWell_SoCal
312 big T
325 Mortgage Guy
373 Rob
The winner will be the closest guess, so leave some room around your number to heighten your chances.
Last January’s count was 30% lower than it was in 2021, to which I made this comment:
The 2022 inventory count was 2,832 (so far).
What it’s like watching a game from these seats? Here are 15 seconds:
The number of NSDCC active listings has been in a tight range of 167-179 over the last six weeks – which means there is a strong surge of new pendings, evidenced by the purple line racing upward. The number of homes in escrow has grown from 142 on January 10th to 193 today!
As of today, the number of new listings in January is 201, which means it looks like Daniel is going to be the winner, and will receive four tickets to a Padres game…..if there is a season.
The guesses:
142 The other Bob
181 Eddie89 201 Daniel Nicolas
210 Drew
215 Joe
222 Majeed
230 Lifeisradincbad (who was a winner last year)
237 Curtis Kaiser
245 doughboy
250 Deckard Mehdy
259 Susie
260 Derek (the other winner last year and only missed by 1)
270 Skip
278 Haile
286 Matt
290 Esteban del Rio
294 Tom
295 Rob Dawg
300 BWell_SoCal
312 big T
325 Mortgage Guy
373 Rob
The 201 is a 30% drop from the January, 2021 count, and you remember how tight the inventory was last year. Hopefully the pandemic is the cause, and we bounce back to have as many listings as we had last year?
Year
Annual Number of NSDCC Detached-Home Listings
2017
4,637
2018
4,840
2019
4,741
2020
4,494
2021
3,618
Remember when we thought the dip in 2020 was a temporary covid decline? Yikes!
Are we going to get a surge of new listings in the coming months?
Our recent history doesn’t suggest it – the San Diego inventory has been the worst around (thanks Bill):
But let’s consider what used to be normal, and see if we can connect the dots.
NSDCC Number of Listings Between January 1st and June 30th:
Year
Total Number of NSDCC Listings, 1st Half
2017
2,703
2018
2,697
2019
2,708
2020
2,302
2021
2,164
The first-half inventory really hit a groove at 2,700 listings for three years straight. But then the impact from covid struck in 2020, and the listings count was 15% lower than the previous years.
But then 2021 was even worse!
If you remember last year, we did a contest for readers to guess the number of listings in January, and everyone came in much higher than the actual listing count. The final total was 288 (Derek did get tickets).
As it turned out, it was an omen for the inventory all year.
Let’s do it again! To keep an eye on what will be the #1 predictor on how the spring season will roll out, let’s guess the number of NSDCC listings this month!
The recent history is below – leave your guess in the comment section.
NSDCC Total Number of Listings, Jan 1-31
Year
Total # of Listings
2017
393
2018
426
2019
418
2020
353
2021
288
If there is a baseball season, the winner will get four tickets to a Padres game! They aren’t front row, but they are pretty good seats:
There may only be a dozen or so guesses, so take part – your chances of winning are good!
My general sense of what will happen, based on the number of January listings:
450 or more listings: Frenzy will be over within 30 days.
400-450 listings: Causes a wait-and-see with some buyers.
300-400 listings: Super-charges the environment to ultra-frenzy conditions!
Under 300 listings: Painfully slow opening to the selling season.
We are up to 276 new NSDCC listings in January, which is 22% under last year’s count of 353 listings!
Here are the guesses – our winner is lifeisradincbad, congratulations!
234 – REOAndre
270 – lifeisradincbad
289 – Derek
305 – Joe
311 – Old Man
318 – Doughboy
325 – Haile
333 – Kris K.
347 – Big Crazy
353 – TominLaCosta
383 – Skip
387 – Amy
396 – Curtis (distance to centerfield wall at Petco!)
404 – Majeed
420 – BigDave
422 – Colleen
425 – Rob Dawg
432 – Tim
440 – Ben
If the total keeps climbing and gets up to 280, Derek will win the same prize – tickets to a Padres game and the U.S. Open. The slower start is probably due to the covid/nothing-else-to-buy/waiting-for-Prop-19 combo, all of which might open up a little in the coming weeks.
Last year at this time we had 222 active NSDCC listings priced under $2,000,000. Today we have 77!
Even though it looks like a record-low inventory for January (251 NSDCC listings so far), the number of pendings increased by 9% in the last week – buyers will not be denied!
I don’t think that the numbers of actives and pendings have ever been this close:
We’ve only had 136 new NSDCC listings this month (including the Coming Soons), so matching last year’s count of 353 listings in January looks unlikely. Those with the lower guesses are looking good:
234 – REOAndre
270 – lifeisradincbad
289 – Derek
305 – Joe
311 – Old Man
318 – Doughboy
325 – Haile
333 – Kris K.
347 – Big Crazy
353 – TominLaCosta
What’s not looking good is the idea that buyers will have plenty of choices this spring!
Happy New Year…..how about a contest to get it started?
My case for a full-blown frenzy is based on having additional supply to fuel the seemingly-insatiable demand brought on by the pandemic – having more homes for sale will help spike sales and prices. Betting on more people selling their piece of paradise sounds insane as the coronavirus rages throughout the region, but we’re overdue – and there are a number of reasons why it could happen:
We will know how the selling season will unravel just by the number of new listings in January.
Here is the history:
NSDCC January Listings
Year
Number of January Listings
2011
367
2012
275
2013
419
2014
425
2015
405
2016
471
2017
395
2018
427
2019
421
2020
353
The range is 275-471, the median is 412, and the average is 396 listings. Last year we had 5% fewer listings, but 13% more sales than in 2019. My 2021 prediction is 10% more NSDCC listings year-over-year, 10% more sales, and a 10% increase in the NSDCC median sales price.
OUR CONTEST: GUESS THE NUMBER OF NSDCC LISTINGS IN JANUARY, 2021!
In 2020, saw a big drop-off in January listings year-over-year (-16%), and that was before the pandemic. If we see a similar amount, or fewer, then prices will go nuts but be limited to the neighborhoods that actually have sales, and the lucky few who can win a bidding war.
If we have a surge in listings, then more of the demand will be satisfied and the frenzy will reach more areas – and prices go up faster because of the additional comps, all of which should close for a higher price than the last sale.
Having a contest based on the number of January listings will help to keep our focus on one of the leading indicators for the 2021 selling season.
The winner will be who guesses the closest (above or below) to the actual number of January listings as counted on the morning of February 15th. The winner will receive two tickets to a day at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, June 17-20, and four tickets to a game with World-Series favorite, the San Diego Padres!
I have purchased tickets to both events already, so as long as the ‘rona cooperates and fans are allowed, we will have prizes. Neither the PGA or the Padres have committed to a set policy on fans yet though, so if they both cancel out then I’ll think of something else for a prize.
Our Padres tickets aren’t front row, but they are decent:
Leave your guess in the the comment section on how many NSDCC SFR listings we’ll have in January!
Bill (in Giants jersey) from the Bay Area has been reading the blog for the last ten years!
He won the earlier contest for Padres tickets, so when he and his family were here on vacation, they took in the first game of the series last night – a 13-2 shellacking by the Giants! They got on TV too:
Congrats Bill and family!
The contest was predicting how many new listings we would have in the first two months of 2019. Bill’s guess was 777, which was the third lowest of those submitted – we all thought more sellers would want to cash out at these prices!
Yesterday’s doomer was looking for the right evidence – historically, one of the first signs of trouble is a surge of inventory. We saw it last time in the first half of 2006 when listings jumped 23% as sellers started scrambling to get out:
NSDCC Detached-Home Listings Jan 1 to June 30:
Year
Number of Listings
Median List Price
2005
2,892
$1,150,876
2006
3,547
$1,120,000
2007
3,120
$1,182,500
But still no surge here locally in 2019.
Our inventory count this year is looking normal – and 24% under the 2006 count:
NSDCC Detached-Home Listings Jan 1 to June 30:
Year
Number of Listings
Median List Price
2013
2,790
$1,179,000
2014
2,713
$1,120,000
2015
2,871
$1,182,500
2016
2,999
$1,425,000
2017
2,712
$1,425,000
2018
2,700
$1,499,000
2019
2,705
$1,569,000
In the first half of 2005, we had 400 sales close under $750,000, and this year we had 55.
We had 560 homes list for $2,000,000+ in the first half of 2005, and 238 closings. This year, we had 901 listings over $2,000,000, and 298 closings!
Even if a few more are added in the coming days, Bb is our winner – congratulations! (Bb, contact me for tickets)
Today’s count:
NSDCC New Listings Jan 1 to Feb 28 (as of March 11th):
2018: 783
2019: 767
There was enough concern about how the market wrapped up in the second half of 2018 that I thought we could see more sellers getting an early start in 2019. But there’s no panic – we didn’t even list as many homes as we did in the first two months of 2018, let alone more.
