Happy April everyone! Spring has sprung in San Diego (although I guess we’re never that far away anyway), the plants are blooming and Opening Day for the Padres is very close at hand.

 

The real estate market in San Diego continues to improve. I am happy to report that our company has a record number of open escrows and an ever increasing flow of incoming buyer inquiries. This tells me that buyers are regaining their confidence.

 

I am often asked about the local foreclosure market due to the negative press coverage we’ve all seen lately. San Diego’s economy remains strong with low unemployment and still very low interest rates. In our county of over 3,000,000 people we are seeing several hundred foreclosures monthly, mostly in lower income areas that had more of the low down payment/poor credit loans (that probably should have never been made in the first place). Of these, I am told that at least half are timeshares, leaving a couple hundred a month maybe as homes or condos. There have been a number of short-sales (where the sale proceeds are not sufficient to pay all the indebtedness) and some bank owned property sales. Assuming the condition of the property is good these have mostly sold at or near market value, without the deep discounts buyers often seek. Remember, banks are under no obligation to discount the selling price. On the contrary, they do have an obligation to their shareholders to maximize their profit, and that means selling their inventory for the highest possible price. There are approximately 3,000 real estate sales per month in San Diego County so you can see that the amount of foreclosure sales is small in comparison and not having a significant impact on local prices.