San Diego has emerged as the most active real estate market in California.
Our latest report, covering construction trends from 1980 to 2023 — a time frame that spans a millennial’s lifetime — reveals fascinating insights into the key drivers shaping the city we see today.
Ranked tenth in the nation for overall development, America’s Finest City is making waves with impressive expansion in the multifamily and office sectors. This growth cements San Diego as a real estate powerhouse in California, ahead of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and one of the nation’s most dynamic economic centers in the country.
Key highlights from the study:
Single family sector: In the past 44 years, San Diego has issued permits for over 76,000 single family homes, the highest number in California. Although the market remains active, the momentum has dramatically waned from the construction boom of the 1980s. In the first half of the 2020s, the average number of single family home permits issued annually is around 500, representing just 14.7% of the yearly output during the 1980s.
Multifamily growth: San Diego ranks ninth in the nation for apartment construction, having issued nearly 173,000 permits over the past five decades. Although still below the 1980s peak of 6,700 units per year, apartment construction has made a strong comeback, averaging an impressive 4,400 permits annually in the 2020s.
Office space expansion: In the last 44 years, San Diego has added over 77 million square feet of office space, leading California and ranking eighth nationally. Driven by thriving software and biotechnology sectors, this impressive growth solidifies San Diego’s role as a major economic hub.
Addressing the need for extra space: San Diego leads California in the self storage sector, adding over 7.3 million square feet in the past 44 years. Despite this substantial growth, demand remains high, with average rents for San Diego storage units hovering around a steep $183 per month.
Industrial revival: In the past five decades, San Diego has added over 56 million square feet of industrial space, placing sixteenth nationally. The recession caused a sharp slowdown, with annual deliveries falling from over 1.2 million square feet in the previous decade to just 280,000 square feet in the 2010s. However, the 2020s have sparked a remarkable comeback, with more than 1.9 million square feet delivered annually, marking a robust revival in the city’s industrial sector.
Retail sector slowing down: The retail sector has been San Diego’s slowest-growing area, with just 24 million square feet added since the 1980s, placing the city twenty-fourth nationally.
This is Kelly Howard’s new listing at 2312 Oxford Avenue in Cardiff, priced at $2,925,000.
With sweeping ocean views from La Jolla to Orange County, this unique contemporary offers the ultimate coastal lifestyle in coveted Cardiff by the Sea. Ideally situated in the Walking District with 3 en suite bedrooms, 3 ½ baths and West facing decks to enjoy whitewater vistas. The architectural design features tall ceilings, windows and skylights that provide abundant natural lighting and terrific air flow from ocean breezes. Remodeled stylish gourmet kitchen with large island, Wolf oven, induction cooktop & microwave, Thermador refrigerator, and Fisher Paykel double drawer dishwasher. Relax in the privacy of the front courtyard enjoying the tranquil waterfall feature, tropical landscaping, and built-in bbq. The paved alley leads to the 2 car garage. Owned Solar. EV Charger. A/C. Walkable to shops, restaurants, the Coastal Rail Trail, beaches and world class surfing. This property has everything desirable for the perfect Cardiff lifestyle. Live here and have it all.
In 1983, Amy and I were the concert producers at Cal State Fullerton and we had just scored the first beer sponsorship in the country for our shows. It gave us the extra dough to have X play a free show in front of 5,000 students in February, and a free show with Carlsbad’s Rank and File with Alejandro Escovedo in March. Oh yeah, and my girlfriend Donna was the chair of Greek Week too.
In Spring, 1983, Donna was president of her sorority AXO, and I was president of SAE!
The ‘Villages of La Costa’ was the name given to the development of four large areas of south Carlsbad. La Costa Valley (bottom left) was graded and model homes being built when this photo was taken. La Costa Oaks South is the green patch to the right, La Costa Ridge in the middle, and La Costa Greens in the upper left, next to where Bressi Ranch and Rancho Carrillo were being graded in this photo.
Here’s a good summary of what Fred had to endure to get the Villages built:
When a property is listed for sale, the seller and their agent work together to create a strategy that positions the property to its best advantage when it goes to market.
The considerations are many and include but are not limited to marketing campaigns/strategies, preparing the property to show in its best light through repairs, refreshes, or staging, thorough evaluation of comparable listings and sales, how to engage with buyers and their agents, and so much more.
One new consideration is whether or not to pay buyer concessions.
If sellers are willing to pay buyer concessions, should they disclose a specific amount?
It’s not required. They can just say that they will consider an offer that includes buyer concessions, and leave it open-ended. Let the buyer and their agent submit their request with their offer to purchase, and maybe it will be less than expected or zero!
What are the benefits of publicly advertising and/or telling buyer-agents that the seller will pay a specific amount for buyer concessions?
It clears the buyer’s mind of having to pay their agent’s compensation – green light to buy!
It buys favor with the buyer-agent, causing them to push harder for this deal to go.
The seller and listing agent have the ability to influence the outcome. They already spruce up the home and pick an attractive price to impress the buyers and their agents, wouldn’t it make sense to use the buyer concessions as another way to help cause a sale? Yes! By telling the buyer-agent the specific amount of seller-paid buyer concessions is one more way to influence the outcome.
Sure…..if it feels like you are giving money away then don’t disclose an amount.
But do everything you can to make it easy for the buyer to buy!
More from our trip to Barcelona, which had protests against tourists right before we arrived but they were very accommodating for us. Here you will see an artistic bent to the garage-door defacement brigade!
P.S. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about Kayla in the very near future!
The lowest mortgage rates since early 2023 might keep buyers in the hunt a little longer than usual!
Will they accept the current pricing, or will they insist on grinding lower?
We can get a feel by examining those listings that have been marked pending this month.
The median days-on-market has been running around 14 days for the last few months, and for the 145 NSDCC closed sales in the last 30 days it was 17 days.
There have been 31 NSDCC listings marked pending this month, and their median DOM is 30 days.
There were 12 that went pending in 14 days or less, and six that took more than 60 days.
Did the sellers dump on price to cause a sale? Or were they patient and just waited their turn? Yes, mostly!
Here are those that took 15 days or longer to go pending in September:
It doesn’t look like ANY of those were dying to give it away! Only one lowered more than 5%.
Could they just be lucky? Yes, but luck is not a strategy.
We will come back in a month or two and see their eventual prices at closing!
The presidential election is less than 60 days away and even if one of the candidates is a clear winner at Tuesday’s debate, the fight will get nasty from here on out.
The distraction is likely to cause potential home buyers to want to wait-and-see. Thankfully, the hope of lower mortgage rates will keep more than just the bottom-feeders in the game – but the serious buyers will have to dig out a deal, because the sellers are being tough on price. Why? They have comps!
It was noted earlier how the market shifted in the middle of May.
In the last 90 days, there have been 531 closed sales between La Jolla and Carlsbad. Their stats:
Median LP: $2,399,000
Median SP: $2,370,000
Median Days on Market: 14
Any casual observer will quickly conclude that the market looks to be in fine shape.
Just the fact that there have been 531 sales sounds pretty good!
But it is easy to miss. What can we learn from the active (unsold) listings?
To derive some conclusions about the overall market conditions, let’s examine the 83 actives priced under $5,000,000 that have been on the market for more than 60 days. After they have been on the market for 2-3 weeks, the showings dwindle down to zero or close, so the market is talking if they’re listening and want to do something about it.
Of the 83, there are 26 who haven’t lowered their price, and three that have raised their price! That’s 35% whose motivation is so low that they’re going to wait until the right buyers come along.
For the most part, those who have lowered their price didn’t do much. We are now in the post-summer soft-and-getting-softer environment, so a meaningful price reduction needs to be 10% or more to get anyone’s attention. Here are samples of the current NSDCC active listings:
Those who have dumped more than 10% and are still unsold are asking themselves, ‘what’s it going to take?’. We just saw that 20% of last month’s sales were still closing OVER their list price – what gives?
The difference is the condition of the home.
The most amazing frenzy of all-time lasted for two years and spoiled everyone. Not only did homes not need to be fixed up much, but the pricing could be sloppy too and yet virtually every house was selling. There were times when 70% to 80% of the homes sold were closing over their list price!
We’ve had an astounding change of market conditions in a relatively short period of time to think that we went from that 70% to 80% to now 20% or less closing over list. It means those 20% are the really spectacular buys, and those seemingly premium listings now need to have aggressive pricing and/or be substantially improved recently to have a shot at getting their price.
Sellers need to be doing everything better. Do more improvements (especially on curb appeal), better staging, premium photography/video, more-attractive pricing, and hire the best agent you can find!
How do you know about the agent? They are talking about the shift, and what to do about it!
Do you want to move out of the rat race but stay close enough to San Diego to come back occasionally for doctor visits and other conveniences? How about Julian? There are several homes for sale under $1,000,000 and you can probably get a good feel for what to expect in one minute here:
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We sold a home with Jim and Donna and from beginning to end they were consummate professionals. Their initial walk through the property resulted in a list of items to be repaired or updated. They supplied a list of vendors and job quotes to do the repairs and updates. We originally wanted to sell ‘as is’ and just get it over with. They gave us a selling price for ‘as is’ and options for doing a few updates/repairs to doing it all with the selling price for each option. We agreed to do all they suggested and we sold for the exact price they predicted. For every dollar spent we got back more than $2 back in the selling price. And they got that price in a rising interest rate environment! Donna and Jim are extremely detailed and guide you through ever aspect of the sale. There were no surprises thanks to their guidance. We couldn’t be more pleased with their representation.
Thank you Donna and Jim,
Jerry and Mary
Heather Quejada
March 27, 2025
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We have known Jim & Donna Klinge for over a dozen years, having met them in Carlsbad where our children went to the same school. As long time North County residents, it was a no- brainer for us to have the Klinges be our eyes and ears for San Diego real estate in general and North County in particular. As my military career caused our family to move all over the country and overseas to Asia, Europe and the Pacific, we trusted Jim and Donna to help keep our house in Carlsbad rented with reliable and respectful tenants for over 10 years.
Naturally, when the time came to sell our beloved Carlsbad home to pursue a rural lifestyle in retirement out of California, we could think of no better team to represent us than Jim and Donna. They immediately went to work to update our house built in 2004 to current-day standards and trends — in 2 short months they transformed it into a literal modern-day masterpiece. We trusted their judgement implicitly and followed 100% of their recommended changes. When our house finally came on the market, there was a blizzard of serious interest, we had multiple offers by the third day and it sold in just 5 days after a frenzied bidding war for 20% above our asking price! The investment we made in upgrades recommended by Jim and Donna yielded a 4-fold return, in the process setting a new high water mark for a house sold in our community.
In our view, there are no better real estate professionals in all of San Diego than Jim and Donna Klinge. Buying or selling, you must run and beg Jim and Donna Klinge to represent you! Our family will never forget Jim, Donna, and their whole team at Compass — we are forever grateful to them.
Lou F
March 27, 2025
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WeI had the pleasure of working with Klinge Realty Group to sell our home in Carmel Valley, and I cannot recommend them highly enough!
Jim and Donna demonstrated exceptional professionalism, offering expert guidance on market conditions and pricing strategy, which resulted in a quick and successful sale.
Communication was prompt and we were well-informed throughout the entire process.
For anyone looking for a dedicated and knowledgeable real estate team, look no further!
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William Sams
March 25, 2025
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Donna and Jim Klinge of Klinge Realty Group have our highest possible recommendation. From Donna and Jim’s first visit to our house through closing their advice and counsel was candid and honest in all dealings. They kept us fully informed throughout the process. The house sold less than three days after listing with a two-week closing. My wife and I have sold several houses during our lives. This was by far the best experience. Klinge Reality is a premium service realtor. You can’t make a better choice for someone to sell your home fast and for top dollar.
Emily Hernandez
December 29, 2024
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Donna and Jim provided exceptional support and professionalism throughout the entire process. We couldn't have been happier with their efforts. They made our house shine, and thanks to their expertise, it sold above the listing price in the very first weekend! Truly a fantastic experience from start to finish.
Jesus Adrian Sahagun
November 11, 2024
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This year has been difficult on our family, mainly due to having to sell our home. Thankfully we knew God had a plan for us and working with the Klinge team was a key part of it. It was an obvious decision to work with them again after such an amazing experience when purchasing the same home we needed to sell. The challenge was, how will we do this in so little time with so much going on? Jim and Donna held our hand every step of the way. Whenever an unexpected issue arose they found and provided a solution. Never once did we feel pressured to make a decision and the Klinges were always reassuring after providing the information that the decision was ours to make. Despite the curve balls, they never panicked and exemplified the “can do” attitude, making us feel optimistic and taken care of. Their expertise and professionalism was superb. But of all the reasons to work with the Klinges, the most impactful and valuable is their compassion and genuine care for their clients. We pray that we can one day purchase our forever home and you better believe that Jim and Donna will be representing us - as long as they will have us of course. Thank you again Klinge team! Your execution, experience, and care are unmatched.
SABIHA PASHA
July 23, 2024
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Jim and Donna were fantastic! Jim understanding my needs, recommending potential places, pointing out the pros and cons of each property was invaluable. Then when the offer was accepted Donna’s organized guidance through the inspections, paperwork etc made the whole process seem effortless.
So grateful that I had them on my side!
Anu Koberg
July 13, 2024
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We first found Jim through his blog at bubbleinfo.com, which really showcased his knowledge of SoCal real estate. Since then we've done three transactions with Jim and Donna, and they are an incredible full service agency, with Jim's deep market insight and Donna's deft contract and project management. We trust them implicitly in their analysis and strategy, which is based on years of experience. They're always available and on top of things, and we strongly recommend them to anyone.
Bjorn Isachsen
July 10, 2024
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The Good
The Klinge Realty Group operates like a finely tuned machine, with a very personal touch. We contacted them on a Sunday and they were talking to us about our family and our needs on our living room couch the following day. They carefully listened to us and worked with us to identify the best and quickest path to listing within 2 weeks to take advantage of the low inventory conditions in our South Carlsbad neighborhood. They knew our tract specifically and had many previous sales there over the years - they came prepared with a thorough analysis of comparative sales and recommended a pricing strategy that they felt confident would yield offers the first weekend on the market.
The Great
Over the next two weeks Donna coordinated a range of vendors who she knew from experience could get the preparation to list work we needed done on time and with high quality. Our light tune-up involved excellent experiences with their stagers, landscapers, contractors, electricians, and plumbers. Throughout this period Donna's daily communication was clear, concise, and responsive. Any time we had questions Donna picked up the phone or texted immediately - but almost always, she answered our questions before we even knew we had them.
The Outstanding
We had a tricky situation with a shared fence that could have delayed our escrow. Donna used superb mediation skills to negotiate the terms of replacement and was personally on site with the fence contractor to make sure everything went smoothly. The fence looks great and escrow closed on time.
The Truly Exceptional
Our house came on the market on a Wednesday and between then and Monday morning Jim was personally at all three open houses. He was in constant communication explaining potential buyer reaction and strength. As he predicted offers began to come in on Saturday and each one was incrementally higher than the last. At the end we had 5 offers, 4 of which were over list, and the final accepted offer was $100,000 over list. In addition to being over list it included rent back terms that met our needs.
The Recommendation
For all of these reasons we would strongly recommend The Klinge Team to anyone wanting to sell in North County Coastal San Diego. I had been reading Jim's bubbleinfo.com blog for 15 years and knew when the time came to sell that he would be our first call. Jim Klinge is not your standard realtor. He is keenly aware of market conditions and sales strategies. And, works his tail off - though not as hard as Donna . At this point he's gone from realtor to friend and I plan to have him over to grill and chill at our new place to talk real estate, but also just about life and raising kids in San Diego. He's more interested in relationships than his sales numbers - and that's why his sales numbers are so high. We have already recommended the Klinge's to some close friends and another successful sale is on deck right around the corner...
Chris Shea
June 21, 2024
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We recently had the pleasure of working with Jim and Donna from Klinge Realty Group to sell our house, and we couldn't be more satisfied with the experience. From the initial meeting, they listened attentively to our needs and provided invaluable guidance on specific improvements to get our home market ready.
Their responsiveness throughout the entire process was truly impressive. Anytime we had questions or concerns, they were quick to address them, ensuring we felt comfortable and informed every step of the way. What stood out the most was their team and extensive network of tradespeople, which made addressing any necessary repairs or updates seamless and stress-free.
Thanks to their expertise and dedication, our house sold quickly and at a great price. We highly recommend Jim and Donna to anyone looking to buy or sell a home. They are a fantastic team who truly care about their clients and deliver exceptional results.
