San Diego home price gains slow

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The average San Diego County home price was flat in October as sales hit its lowest level since winter.

The average home price was unchanged from the previous month at $ 740,000, CoreLogic / DQNews reported on Wednesday. The price is below the high of $ 749,750 hit in June. On an annual basis, prices will rise by 13.8 percent.

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There were 3,755 home sales in October, the lowest since February. For most of the year, the region averaged around 4,300 sales per month, still low by historical standards, but to be expected given the low interest rates and feverish demand.

Analysts say there are two factors that have pushed sales down: the lack of homes in the market and potential buyers becoming less and less likely to exceed asking prices.

“It’s not that there aren’t any buyers. It’s really the lack of inventory, ”said Gary Kent, a La Jolla real estate agent.

Kent said he asked customers if they would consider selling houses, but they keep encountering the same problems: people think they’ll get more money if they wait, or there are so few houses to buy Selling That homeowners worry when they sell their home they won’t be able to find another to buy.

October had almost the lowest home inventory ever that year, with the exception of February. From September 27 to October 24, 3,540 houses were for sale, announced the Redfin Data Center. Compared to the previous year, 5,114 apartments were for sale, 7,754 in 2019 and 9,400 in 2018.

Kent said he had noticed a slight slowdown in buyers’ eagerness. He said he would receive calls from real estate agents from January to June saying that their clients could just “ask a little bit too much” so they wouldn’t even bother bidding. Kent said those types of calls had stopped.

Mortgage rates have stayed low. The rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.07 percent in October, Freddie Mac reports, up from 2.83 percent a year earlier. The rate is up 2.68 percent from the December average, the lowest level since 1971.

Mark Goldman, a real estate analyst at C2 Financial Corp., said that rising interest rates usually slow sales, but he saw lower inventory levels as the main reason for the slowdown. He said he doubted the price would change much.

“I don’t expect prices to go down,” he said. “Will they increase 20 percent in a year in San Diego? I do not think so. I don’t think that’s sustainable. I assume that the appreciation will slow down. “

The bulk of October sales, 2,381, were single-family home resales, which averaged $ 830,000. That’s a decrease from a high of $ 840,000 reached in July.

Resale condos accounted for 1,175 of sales for a median of $ 565,000, a high it has remained at in three months. There were 199 newly built home sales – including new homes, townhouses, and condos – for a median of $ 762,500. That’s less than the $ 812,500 record in October 2018, which reflects an increase in luxury single-family homes for sale.

About 60.6 percent of the homes listed for sale in San Diego County in October were sold within two weeks, the Redfin Data Center said. That’s a 73 percent decrease in March.

Jan Ryan, a RE / MAX agent based in Ramona, said that despite surprising price increases over the year, she keeps seeing properties that seem too high.

“Everyone thinks they can ask what they want now,” she said. “I recommend buyers look at houses that have been sitting for a while and make a lower offer.”

Ryan said she recently listed two moderately priced single-family homes based on recent sales in Ramona that ended with multiple offers. She launched a 1,674-square-foot single-family home for $ 679,000, but had several listings in the $ 700,000 range in a matter of days, eventually closing a 2,607-square-foot home for $ 51,000 when she was the same amount took time.

Price gains across Southern California largely cooled in October compared to historic price hikes during the pandemic.

Orange County had the largest monthly profit, increasing 3.4 percent to a median of $ 920,000. It was followed by Riverside County for a median of $ 535,000. San Diego County remained unchanged. San Bernardino County was also unchanged with a median of $ 465,000, as was Ventura County with a median of $ 725,000. Los Angeles County declined 0.6 percent to a median of $ 790,000.

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