After being almost a third of the way through the year it’s a good time to ask how the real estate market is really looking in San Diego County. Here are some numbers to help asses where the housing market is currently at. The average home price for an existing single-family home in the San Diego area was a little over $362,000 for February. This was a fairly decent increase from January when the median price was only around $350,000, or a 3.5% change. The average home price back in February of 2011 was almost $368,000, so there was a slight decrease of 1.5% year-over-year. The fluctuations in price are expected for this time of year and aren’t out of the ordinary for a healthy market. The decrease in home prices from February of last year and February of this year isn’t anything really significant to worry about. The change just shows that the housing market and the price index will continue to gradually fluctuate up and down as the economy and housing market recover.
One number that showed a promising and significant increase was the percentage of sales year-over-year. The change was 21% from February 2011 to February 2012. This drastic increase can be credited to a few things, such as a quicker response time from lenders on short sale transactions along with changes in banking procedures. The lower interest rates that we have been seeing are now starting to rise, so buyers are starting to act quickly before interest rates get any higher.
The housing market is also tightening due to a decrease in inventory. Buyers are having to act quickly when looking for a home because there is a lot of competition out there. The average time it would take to sell through all of the inventory on the market in February was 6 months; this was down from January, when the amount of time was 7 months. Bank in February of 2011, there was much more inventory and the time to sell through all properties was 9 months.
As previously stated, it’s currently a very competitive market for buyers. In February, the average time a home was on the market was 59 days. In January is was 62 days, which is little change from February of 2011 when the average time on the market was 63 days.
All of these factors, increasing interest rates, increasing home prices and a shrinking inventory all add up to one thing: there is definitely a seller’s market in San Diego County.
