Oceanside Real Estate Weblog

Pending Home Sales Rise An Unexpected 5.3%

As usual the bean counters only know what happened after the harvest. If you really want to know what is going in Real Estate read Blogs such as mine, of course, SoCalHomeBlog.com or any of the numerous others that have the true pulse of the market . This is really old news. Those who are in the market have noticed a dramatic increase in activity since late spring of this year. Homes in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Vista and San Marcos are selling quickly with short sales and foreclosures driving the market.

“The National Association of Realtors says pending U.S. home sales rose in June in an unexpected piece of positive news for the beleaguered market.

The group’s seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose 5.3 percent to 89 from a downwardly revised May reading of 84.5. The index was 12 percent below year-ago levels.

Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR had predicted the index would fall to 84.3. The index, which sunk to a record low of 83 in March, stood at 101.4 in June 2007.”

August 6, 2008 The Associated Press.

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Has Oceanside Been Hit Harder Than Other North San Diego Areas?

T L tl_@****com wrote:

I found your weblog just now. I’m curious to find out if you know why Oceanside has been hit so hard by the current market downturn seemingly harder than other areas?
Thanks,
TL

Hi TL,

Oceanside is really in line with the over all county wide average median price decline. Every community is unique. Oceanside has a very diverse housing market. There are about 40 different neighborhoods or identifiable demographic areas within the city housing market.

Here are some terms use to describe some of the neighborhoods, in some cases their actual names Oceanfront, The Old Town Site Downtown, South O, Ranch Del Oro, Mesa, Fire Mountain, The Front Gate, The Back Gate, Tri -City, Cloud Nine, The Valley, The East Side, Morro Hills, Hennie Hills, Peacock Hills, Jefferies Ranch, The Calles, Oceana, and the list goes on.

Housing prices in some of these areas are holding up rather well. Oceanfront is always in demand, and fetches the highest price. It’s been dinged but not crushed. In addition, because of the the baby boomer demographics, age 55+ communities are in demand holding their value.

The areas that are getting hit the hardest are the communities that had a large volume of sales from 1998 to 2005. These areas are typically mid to entry level priced that sold between $400K and $600K. During this period Oceanside had a large inventory of homes that fit the description.

From 1998 to 2005 the housing market was white hot with prices rising at double digit rates. Instead of putting on the brakes and allowing things to cool lending institutions actually relaxed their qualifying requirements adding fuel to the buying frenzy. Buyers could get +100% adjustable rate mortgages with easy qualifying. These and other easy to get loans are known as SUB-PRIME because the don’t meet traditional down payment, credit and income requirements. Many homeowners who had equity used their homes as cash cows to pay bills, buy cars or toys. The rest is history in the making. Loans adjusted and highly leveraged homeowners found they couldn’t afford the new higher payments. They also found there was no way to refinance out of the situation since prices stopped going up. FORECLOSURE and SUB-PRIME became a global household name.

The market correction was a natural cause and effect action that has repeated itself many times throughout history. This is where opportunity historically appears for those willing and able to take advantage.

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Sales Trends San Diego CA

Attached is an ex-script about sales trends in San Diego courtesy of the National Association of Realtors and Yahoo. There are plenty of good buys, but how long will it last? This should give some indication. If you have any questions contact your trusted real estate professional. Chances are their guess is as good as any.
For those waiting for a bottom, consider where else in the world is a better place to live than San Diego County. Also, take into consideration that almost all foreclosures, in that hot segment of the market, sell for 98% of list price. In addition, many of the coastal area foreclosures get multiple offers. So it may be time to let that pent up need for a home along the San Diego Coast express itself. There are some fantastic buys to be found in Oceanside, Carlsbad and Encinitas but you have to be ready. Like my karate Sensi used to say “the time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself”.

Matt Woolsey, Forbes.com

Apr 10th, 2008

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Spring Bounce Is Trying To Blossom.

Will things pick up in North San Diego County Real Estate for the up coming spring season? There are some good indications that we will see some increased activity soon. First, interest rates are still near historic lows. Also, normal sellers have been noticeably absent from the winter market. Many listings are foreclosures or short sales. The average seller is gun shy about having to compete with these give away offerings. Soon pent up demand both to sell and buy will have to give way. Expect some good action soon. That’s my call.

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Market is absorbing foreclosures

Year end statistics have recently been released by Sandicor the regional multiple listing service for San Diego. A total of 30,500 homes were sold in San Diego County in 2007. Of that number 5200 were foreclosures. These numbers are fairly normal in any market. Even more revealing is that virtually all of the foreclosure listing sell at 98.2% of list price. Other homes on the market sell at an average of 95.5% of list price. The reason foreclosures sell so high is they are already priced to sell.

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