The median home price in San Diego started 2010 at $330K, rose to $340K in May and ended the year at $333K. Up for the year, but only an inch. Also, up slightly, .9%, from November. It would be nice if the whole year ramped up consistently but in this market we can appreciate that any improvement at year’s end is a ray of sunlight, even though the storm clouds remain unsettled.
There was good news and bad news with the monthly sales volume in December. Sales volume was up 24.4% from November. A typical November to December increase in recent years is 18.6%. That’s the good news. The bad news was that December’s 3,191 transactions were still down 12.6% from December ’09 and ranked it as the second lowest December in the 23 years since DataQuick began tracking these numbers.
There were median sales price increases for all 4 of the Carlsbad zip codes when compared with December ’09 numbers. 92008 was up 5%, 92009 was up 3.2%, 92010 was up 19.1% and 92011 was up 16.4%. When you look at year-to-year appreciation or depreciation on a monthly level, they fluctuate quite a bit, but December was definitely a bright spot for Carlsbad home prices.
There were a couple really interesting pieces of news over the last few weeks. On January 21, Forbes came out with an article, “Best and Worst Cities for Home Values in 2011.” On the “Best” list, San Diego ranked 5th out of 315 markets with an appreciation of 2% projected for 2011 and 2% annualized for the next three years. And, on February 10, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate crept above 5% for the first time since May, 2010. With rates seemingly on the rise and sources like Forbes predicting our market to be one of the best positioned for a recovery, this creates more of an urgency for buyers to engage in our market. It’s another ray of sunlight.
(Data from DataQuick and Jan. 17, 2011 UT article, “San Diego County Home Sales Up, But Prices Fall”)