What follows is a summary of the activity in the county real estate market in February, 2011.  It is a general report which may not apply to individual, specific areas or zip codes.  Those pinpointed reports can be run upon request, and should be studied prior to either making an offer to purchase a home or putting a home on the market for sale.

 

Detached Homes:  There are now 7,542 detached homes on the market vs. 7,612 last month.  1,767 homes opened new escrows vs. 1,187 last month, obviously a HUGE increase. This dropped our supply from 6.41 months on February 1, 2011 to 4.27 months now.  This means detached homes are in a seller's market with stable to rising prices.  Another 2,038 short sales went "contingent" (offer approved by seller, awaiting lender/seller approval of the short sale) vs. 1,889 a month prior.  It is not completely accurate to simply add this number to the new escrows since many will not close with the original buyer but it does give us a "gross" number of 3,805 homes coming off the market, a 1.98 month supply.  308 of the 1,254 escrows that closed in February were bank owned properties.

Attached Homes (Condos, etc.):  Today we have 3,781 condos on the market for sale vs. 3,863 on February 1, 2011.  854 new escrows were opened vs. 613 last month and 839 last February, giving us a 4.43 month supply of homes vs. 6.30 on 2/1/11.  Another 1,416 condos went "contingent" vs.1,324 last month, meaning that a total of 2,270 condos received accepted offers in February 2011.  This means that prices are stable to rising.  229 of the 669 condos that closed escrow in February were bank owned properties.

In summary, the local inventory in both detached and attached units fell, the number of new escrows increased significantly.  This reflects investors, many paying all cash, taking advantage of the low prices and buyers locking in the still low interest rates.  The number of new foreclosures hitting the market has  apparently not had a negative effect on sales or pricing .  I would expect the sales activity to improve further during the spring and summer months.  It is not unusual for investors to lead the market out of a bottom with individual buyers to wait until prices have increased 10% or more, along with interest rates.  My personal opinion is that, with the general economy starting to show signs of improvement, real estate will follow.  That is not to say there won't be any bumps in the road, but generally speaking things are looking better than they have in a long time.  The "flood" of new bank owned properties has not materialized yet because many banks have finally learned that they are their own worst competition and that if they move their inventory to the market slowly they will make more in the end (this is one of the few things they have done correctly).

 

If you are considering doing a short sale on your own property I would suggest you do it sooner rather than later as some banks have been foreclosing in spite of having a higher offer in hand.  Don't ask me why, there's no good reason, but we've seen it several times over the last month.  Once the Notice of Trustee's Sale is filed it is becoming very difficult to successfully complete a short sale, so get started before that happens!

 

The link below will take you to an article I saved that shows that it might now be smarter to buy than rent...

 

 

Have a great March and let me know what questions you have.  I'd love to discuss the value of your San Diego home or start a focused automatic home search for you or refer you to an excellent agent in your area if you do not currently live here.