The North County and San Diego real estate markets are still hot, hot, hot! Even though we are no longer experiencing the extraordinary, twenty to twenty-five percent annual price increases we saw in 2012 and 2013, our market is still sizzling, and everyone is talking about it.
San Diego is Hot
After hitting twelfth place in June, San Diego moved up to number eight in realtor.com®’s July 2015 list of the 20 hottest markets in the country. In these medium to large-sized housing markets, listings on realtor.com® are viewed as much as three times more often than they are compared to the national average. In addition to viewings, they rate the hotness of these markets by how fast listings in these cities are selling. The median market time in San Diego County in July was just 17 days.
Carlsbad is Hot
Carlsbad made the list at number ten in realtor.com’s® Combined Hotness Index for January through June 2015. According to Realtor.com®, homes in these communities sell four to nine times faster than the national average and are viewed three to eight times more often than those homes. The median time it took detached homes to sell in Carlsbad in July 2015 was between 18 and 26 days.
Hot but Pricey
Realtor.com® attributes healthy local economies, job opportunities and affordability for creating these hot markets. San Diego County does well with the first two items, but not so well when it comes to affordability. The California Association of Realtors’ housing affordability report for the second quarter of this year shows that only 25 percent of residents can afford to purchase a median-priced single-family home in San Diego County. The high demand for housing this spring pushed that number down from 28 percent in the first quarter.
You can read more about the San Diego housing market in The San Diego Union-Tribune’s midyear housing report, and in my San Diego County Housing Market report for August which I will be posting soon.