Prices continue to rise throughout San Diego County and we are approaching the 2005 pre-recession median home price peak of $517,500. In fact, multiple zip codes throughout the county have met or exceeded their pre-recession peaks with many of those zip codes located in the North County Coastal area.

Real Estate Report

This is great news for those who are building equity, hard on those trying to enter the market, and scary for those who got hurt during the recession. But what do those numbers really mean? Housing affordability in San Diego County has dropped significantly since 2012, but even with significant price increases, it hasn’t changed much since 2014. This is because those price increases have not been adjusted for inflation, or changing incomes and interest rates. First American’s Economic Center has taken these factors into account in a recent report titled, First American Real House Price Index (RHPI).

The index set the RHPI at 100 in January 2000 and then compares those values to today’s numbers adjusting for income and interest rates. San Diego’s Real Price Index in April 2016 was 84.1. Recent events, like “Brexit,” have helped push down interest rates, increasing buying power even more. I’ll have our updated RHPI in next month’s San Diego County Real Estate Report.

Interest Rates

Click on the links below to read the full housing statistics reports.