San Diego Real Estate Blog

Imperial Beach Real Estate Prices Fall Again in 2008

Imperial Beach 91932 in South Bay San Diego had another drop in real estate prices in January 2008. The home prices dropped 6.8% from January 2007 to January 2008. The peak year of 2005 had a median home price of $515,000. Compared to the January 2008 median home price of $405,000 there is a median home price drop of $110,000 from the 2005 level. The median home price in 2007 for Imperial Beach was $451,000. The trend is continuing down and should continue do to foreclosures and short sales in the area.

There were 7 homes that closed escrow in January 2008. Currently in late March there are 59 homes for sale in Imperial Beach with a median list price of $558,773. There are 11 home in escrow with a median list price of $357,636 and will set the new bottom of the market for Imperial Beach when and if they close escrow. So far in 2008 15 homes have closed escrow with a median sold price of $515,060. One of the 15 homes sold was close to 2 million dollars on Seacoast Drive. If this home is taken out of the stats the median sold home price is $415,350.

There were 3 condos sold in Imperial Beach in January 2008 with a median price of $228,000. This number is down by 32.4% from January 2007. There were 3 new properties, “homes and condos” that sold in January 2008 with a median home price of $307,500 which is up 9.8% from the January 2007 number.

When you’re ready to buy or sell a home or condo in Imperial Beach give Mike and Dawn a call or visit Dawn Sells San Diego.

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Carlsbad Real Estate 92009 Takes Big Drop in January 2008

92009 Carlsbad in North County Coastal San Diego took a dip in real estate prices from January 2007 to January 2008. Carlsbad had been one of the strong holds in San Diego for maintaining their house values. The dip in median home prices in this Carlsbad zip code was down 19.4% from last January’s Median Home Price. The January median home price was $715,000 compared to the $820,000 median home price of 2007. This is a sharp dip in Carlsbad home prices. The chart shows Carlsbad home prices and the green bar is the peek year of 2007 and the red bar is the January 2008 decline.

It’s hard to say for sure if this trend will continue throughout the rest of 2008 but with the rest of San Diego County and other parts of Carlsbad starting to slide it very well might. Sometimes monthly data is not a good indicator of the actual market conditions because there are not enough homes selling in a month for data analysis. For instance if you asked 3 people who they’re voting for your results would not be as accurate as if you asked 100 people who they’re voting for. There were 13 homes sold in January 2008 and that is a pretty good number for accurate data. I’ll have February’s numbers soon and we’ll see if the trend continues.

At the end of March 2008 while doing this report there were 217 homes for sale in 92009 Carlsbad with a median home price of $1,022,360. That’s a lot of inventory with only 13 homes closing in the month of January. As far as brand new homes in January 2008 selling in Carlsbad 92009 there were 15 new homes that closed escrow at a median price of $963,500 and that number is down 13.4% from January 2007. Condos in Carlsbad 92009 were down 13.4% as well from January 2008 and 12 sold.

When you’re ready to buy or sell a home or condo in Carlsbad give Mike and Dawn a call or visit Dawn Sells San Diego.

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Chula Vista Condos 91913

March 2008 shows 184 condos for sale in Chula Vista in the 91913 Zip Code. The average list price for these Chula Vista Condos is $291,328 with average days on market of 110 days. The lowest priced condo in Chula Vista 9193 is in the Camelot Complex and is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo just under 1,000 square feet. It has been on the market for 371 days and is listed at $174,900 and had an original list price of $304,900. It is bank owned and listed with Ashlon Realty. The highest priced condo on the market in 91913 is in Capri listed by Coldwell Banker with a list price of $485,000 with 14 days on the market. This Chula Vista condo has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and is 1,670 square feet.

The chart of condo sales in Chula Vista 91913 shows the peak of 2005 in green of a $400,000 median condo price. The average 2007 median condo price was $340,000 and the red bar on the chart shows the median condo price in January 2008 of $300,000. Chula Vista has many condos to look at if you’re considering a purchase in zip codes 91910, 91911, 91913, 91914 and 91915.

If you’re interested in Chula Vista Real Estate and San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Mike and Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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John McCain’s Chula Vista Visit

John McCain visited Chula Vista after returning from his Middle East tour. John McCain, the Republican Candidate for President of the United States had a town hall style meeting in Chula Vista in South Bay San Diego. He visited the VFW Post 2111 in Chula Vista and had a meeting with 200 veterans, active duty military and families. John McCain a veteran himself stressed the importance of finishing the job we started in Iraq and made it clear it’s a fight worth fighting.

John McCain was met with anti-Iraq-war protestors during his Chula Vista campaign stop over. It was a great day for Senator McCain to visit Chula Vista and San Diego with temperatures in the mid 70’s and lots of Southern California sunshine. I was in Chula Vista during his visit very close to where he was but didn’t see any signs of his entourage. San Diego and Chula Vista are Military Towns as we say and have many active duty military, veterans and their families living here. Thanks for stopping by John and good luck on the campaign trail.

If you’re interested in Chula Vista Real Estate and San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Mike and Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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San Diego Home Prices Fall like Many Other U.S. Cities

CNN Money reported that 20 Major U.S. Cities, noted as “key markets” had an average decrease in value by almost 11% from January 2007 to January 2008. San Diego had a 1 year drop of 16.7% which was higher than the national average. See the attached photo from CNN Money and go to this link for the article. I am of the philosophy that the sooner San Diego will find its bottom the sooner the recovery will start. Most areas, not all, of San Diego have seen downturn in house values over the past couple of years and as the cycle continues they should drop more in many areas of the county. I think the question is how close are we to the bottom?

I think the foreclosure markets will drive down prices in many areas of San Diego and many other major cities of the U.S. I have seen a trend in the banks taking less money and some cases extremely low offers on distressed bank owned properties. This will really drive the average sales price down of homes within specific zip codes and communities. The deals for someone interested in buying a home in San Diego are in the bank foreclosures and short sales. Many parts of San Diego have many of these bank owned and soon to be bank owned homes to choose from. With banks taking less than what they had hoped, this has driven prices down even further and buyers can buy a lot for their money compared to last year.

The question that many buyers have is, can I get a better price if I wait and buy later in the year or buy in 2009? This is a good question. I think it is up to the individual buyer to answer. I think it also depends on exactly where in San Diego they want to buy a home or condo. Some parts of San Diego don’t have many foreclosures and short sales while other areas of San Diego have many. The areas of San Diego with more bank owned homes will drop lower in value than areas with no or few bank owned properties. I think it’s very important to get to the bottom and the sooner the better. When this happens the leveling off or slight up tick in the market will remove much of the anxiety. Of course we won’t know when the bottom is until after it happens.

If you’re interested in San Diego Home Buying and San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Mike and Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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San Diego Easter Sunday at the Beach

The weather in San Diego for Easter Sunday 2008 was gorgeous. It was a sunny day in the 70’s and we decided to take a walk on one of our favorite beaches, Torrey Pines State Beach. We weren’t the only ones to have the idea of a nice walk on a San Diego beach on an Easter Sunday afternoon. There were hundreds of others at the beach walking, jogging, tanning, making sand castles, swimming and everything else you could imagine doing on a beach.

As we left the Torrey Pines State Park parking lot we couldn’t help but notice all of the flowers that were in bloom by the oceans edge and in the Torrey Pines canyons. Wonderful purples, yellows, whites, pinks and other colorful flowers were a Spring treat on this Easter beach walk. There were two large groups of Dolphins at the waters edge that were playing in the waves and looked to be entertaining some of the surfers that were enjoying the high surf. Needless to say it was a magical day in San Diego but really not so out of the ordinary. San Diego has an over abundance of natural beauty.

Our favorite thing to do at Torrey Pines Beach is to walk all the way down to Blacks Beach. Now Blacks Beach is a local nude beach although signs are posted everywhere that nudity is prohibited. We don’t go to this beach to bare it all or stare at others that do bare it all, we go for the large amounts of sand dollars that are easy to find in the shallows. I equate it to finding four leaf clovers and enjoy the hunt. This is probably a beach you should consider not bringing your kids to.

We walked along the beach on a 3 hour round trip walk and got a good sun burn. My first color of the year. After that we picked up the kids and went to grandmas for Easter Dinner and we ate in the back yard and watched the hot air balloons in Del Mar float by. It was a great Easter Sunday.

If you’re considering relocating to San Diego contact us right away. We love what we do and we would love to help you.

If you’re interested in San Diego Home Buying and San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Mike and Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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Fresh Paint Can Bring More Cash When Selling

After looking at many homes over many years while showing real estate to home buyers in San Diego California I have notice “Fresh Paint” can bring more cash when selling. Let’s face it painting is easy. Home Depot and Lowes as well as any hardware store or paint store has many different colors and brand names of paint and has lots of employees that generally give pretty good advice on painting a home interior and exterior. If painting seems a little too hard for you hiring a professional is very affordable and can really help make your home stand out from others on the market.

Let’s talk about color. My experience with home being with buyers that are walking through a home is that when I watch their faces and listen to their comments they seem impressed by freshly painted walls and ceilings. Neutral colors fit the tastes of a broader range of buyers and are in my opinion the best choice for painting before selling. Sherman-Williams has a Color Visualizer that can help you with color choices and accent color choices. Remember you’re painting your home to sell it not for it to look good for your tastes. Although your tastes might be what most home buyers like. Stick with colors like beiges, antique white and light java and if you must pick a loud risky color that might not be liked by the majority of home buyers use it in a bathroom, or secondary bedroom.

De-cluttering a home is very important and a clean carpet goes well with freshly painted walls. Less is more because it keeps the focus off of your stuff and on the actual home. Less stuff also makes the home feel larger. It’s also a good idea to hire a home stager or interior decorator for advice. In many states you now need to disclose if you have painted your home within a certain period of time before selling. This is o.k. just make sure you always disclose that you have painted. Many times homebuyers will repaint as soon as they close escrow but that’s o.k. because having that fresh coat of paint could have very well made the difference in the buyer choosing your home.

There are many bank owned foreclosures in San Diego County and most of them don’t show well. Most are vacant, not very appealing, not staged and sometimes have the previous owners belongings scattered about the property. Making your home stand out form homes that are in disarray can help you get more offers and more money.

If you’re interested in San Diego Home Buying and San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Mike and Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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Chula Vista Homes 91915 Real Estate Update

Chula Vista 91915 is the EastLake and Windingwalk areas of Eastern Chula Vista. The 2007 home values in this area have dropped and the median home price is down 12% from 2006 to 2007. The 2007 median home price is $567,500 and 168 homes were sold for the year. In January of 2008 there were 14 homes that sold in the 91915 zip code. The median price for these homes was $514,821. In February 2008 there were 15 homes that closed escrow and a median home price of $447,719.

While doing this report in March of 2008 there were 240 homes for sale in the San Diego MLS for zip code 91915. The average list price for these 240 homes was $515,312 with average days on market of 101 days. The competing zip codes of 91913 and 91914 in Eastern Chula Vista are also usually considered when buying a home in this area. Buyers are in a position to make a deal when buying a home. The short sales, pre foreclosures and foreclosures in this area are driving this market and probably will continue to for this year and next year.

There are many homes for sale the in 91915 area of Chula Vista and most of the homes in EastLake, EastLake Greens, EastLake Trails, EastLake Vistas and Windingwalk are less than 15 years old and many are brand new homes. When considering buying a home in Chula Vista 91915 make sure you contact us.

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If you’re interested in Chula Vista Real Estate and South Bay San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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All information is believed to be correct but not guaranteed.

Chula Vista Bank Owned Homes

Chula Vista has many bank owned homes for sale. The banks have foreclosed on many homes in Chula Vista in all zip codes including; Chula Vista 91910, 91911, 91913, 91914 or 91915. There are many bank owned properties, homes and condos in the following Chula Vista communities; Otay Ranch, Windingwalk, Hillsborough, Countryside, Heritage, Lomas Verdes, Montecito, Rolling Hills Ranch, EastLake, EastLake Greens, EastLake Vista, EastLake Shores, EastLake Hills, EastLake Summit, EastLake Trails, EastLake Woods, San Miguel Ranch and others. Sometimes bank owned properties can take more effort and patience to buy but they can also be a great deal for those who want them. The banks will sometimes be slow to act either on a foreclosure or short sale, testing both a buyers and agent’s patience. It is possible to strike gold and find that perfect property at a very fair price. We can show you all homes and condos for sale in Chula Vista including resale, new, short sales and foreclosures.

We have the patience to show you around and find some great deals. We can submit the offers to the banks and negotiate some very good prices for buyers in this saturated market. So far this year in 2008 there is a lot of activity in the real estate market. Give us a call to see if it’s the right time for you.

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If you’re interested in Chula Vista Real Estate and South Bay San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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All information is believed to be correct but not guaranteed.

Downtown San Diego Median Condo Price 2008

The Down Town median condo price for 2007 was $538,000. This median condo price for Downtown San Diego condos was $52,000 less than last years median condo price of $590,000. It is $ 82,000 less than the peak median condo price of $620,000 in 2004. The Downtown San Diego condo market is somewhat saturated with many bank owned condos, foreclosures and short sales. Many of the new Downtown San Diego projects, new condo developments in Downtown San Diego were put on hold because of the slowing market. It’s a good thing they did or we would really have some inventory problems now in 2008.

Downtown San Diego Condos

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Downtown San Diego is still a very desirable place to live in San Diego. San Diego is a great city and if you have ever visited San Diego especially in the past few years you know what I mean. With attractions like PETCO Park and the San Diego Padres, Gaslamp, Little Italy and so many other great downtown areas, the Downtown San Diego scene is very happening. Right now its bargain time for Downtown San Diego real estate and in February 2008 there are over 400 condos on the market in 92101 Downtown San Diego. Call us to preview these San Diego Condos.

Year Med Price

1988 $162,500
1989 $150,000
1990 $183,000
1991 $200,000
1992 $175,000
1993 $153,000
1994 $154,000
1995 $166,250
1996 $160,000
1997 $175,500
1998 $210,000
1999 $260,000
2000 $350,000
2001 $326,000
2002 $405,000
2003 $479,000
2004 $620,000
2005 $597,500
2006 $590,000
2007 $538,000

Downtown San Diego Condos

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If you’re interested in Downtown San Diego and Central Coastal San Diego Real Estate make sure you contact Dawn Lewis at Dawn Sells San Diego.

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All information is believed to be correct but not guaranteed.