December brought an even tighter inventory squeeze to North County and San Diego housing markets keeping strong upward pressure on home prices. Following November’s pattern, we saw a drop in pending and closed sales, but an even larger decrease in new listings. This kept median, year-over price increases at 17.6 percent in North County and 16.7 percent countywide.
North County and San Diego Housing Markets
Inventory dropped to just 0.4 months’ supply in December. (I don’t remember ever seeing so few homes on the market.) Homes closed at 102.2 percent of their asking price, and they stayed on the market for even fewer days than they had in November.
What’s going to slow this market down? It will take either a significant increase in inventory, which doesn’t seem likely in the short term, or an upturn in interest rates. And interest rates are rising.
Freddie Mac predicted the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage will average 3.5 percent in 2022. Rates already pushed above 3.5 percent on Friday. But don’t panic just yet. They peaked on Monday and then started dropping.
Will rates stay at Freddie Mac’s forecast of 3.5 percent this year, or will they tick up to 4.0 percent by the end of the year as predicted by the Mortgage Bankers Association? We’ll have to wait and see, but higher interest rates will put pressure on San Diego home prices.
See below for this month’s statistics and daily interest rate updates.
Interest Rates
Market Updates
Click on the links below to read the San Diego real estate market reports.
- NORTH COUNTY MONTHLY INDICATORS
- METRO SAN DIEGO COUNTY MARKET UPDATE
- EAST SAN DIEGO COUNTY MARKET UPDATE
- SOUTH SAN DIEGO COUNTY MARKET UPDATE
- SAN DIEGO COUNTY MONTHLY INDICATORS
- 2021 SAN DIEGO COUNTY MARKET REPORT
North County Housing Summary
- The median price for all North County home sales increased 17.6 percent in December 2021 compared to December 2020.
- Detached homes saw a median price increase of 14.1 percent in North County, moving from $790,000 in December 2020 to $901,000 in December 2021.
- The number of sold units in North San Diego County decreased 22.6 percent compared to the previous December. Pending sales dropped 19.0 percent in the same period.
- Median days on market for North San Diego County properties was 18. This is a 18.2 percent decrease from the previous December.
- Inventory supply in North San Diego County dropped from 1.2 months in December 2020 to 0.5 months.
San Diego County Housing Summary
- The median price for all San Diego County home sales in December 2021 was $765,754. This is a 16.7 percent increase compared to December 2020.
- Detached homes saw a median price increase of 14.1 percent in San Diego County, moving from $745,000 in December 2020 to $850,000 in December 2021.
- Attached homes in San Diego County had a 19.4 percent median price increase compared to the previous year. They moved up to $585,000 in December 2021.
- Inventory supply countywide in December 2021 decreased from 1.0 months a year earlier to 0.4 months.