Ocean View Homes Buck Trends in San Diego Real Estate

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There are two types of ocean views in San Diego County homes:

1) Those that make you pause and reflect life for a few moments.

2) All of the rest of them.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of "the rest of them" in San Diego County. The San Diego Multiple Listings Service has a category called "View" where real estate agents enter what a buyer can expect to "view" when looking outwards from a property. Yet this category does not distinguish between "amazing, unobstructed whitewater" and "I think that's the ocean in the distance or between those two other homes"--both are considered "Ocean".

When your agent takes you to a list of "ocean-view homes", you'll find some a tad misleading. You might have to stand on your tiptoes in the corner of the yard, or turn your head at a certain angle from the window of the guest bathroom, or "imagine" the view from the roof if you invested in an expensive rooftop deck edition. You think to yourself, this is strange--the pictures on the internet made it seem this home was a stone's throw from the beach. The reality is zoom lenses can be used a tad unethically by real estate agents when taking the internet pictures for their listings.

My point here is not that distant or partial ocean views are a bad thing; they do provide extra physical and emotional appeal. My point is that a really good ocean view can do something that the average ocean views cannot--they can buck market trends.

Most would agree that the San Diego real estate market is a little "softer" now than it was some years back. When you combine the excess inventory with the lower demand, it is easy to see why. Now, even though this is the general trend, there are some areas and types of homes that are able to fight this trend admirably. Amazing ocean view properties are one of the best challengers out there. A view that makes someone stop in their tracks and admire it, elicits something from inside a person that is difficult to pull out: emotion. A view that can make a person smile is worth much more than a view that cannot, plain and simple.

When we go on vacation, how come we pick beautiful locations like Hawaii instead of Fresno (not that there's anything wrong with Fresno). It is because it makes us feel a certain way inside. Wouldn't you duplicate that same feeling in your home if you could? Logically, San Diego ocean view homes like these come with a higher price tag. One of the main reasons this is true is because there are few of them. I don't care how much excess inventory is in our market right now, there will never be an excess of great ocean views. Low supply plus high demand and you do the math.

We continue to build new tract communities inland in San Diego County, therefore creating even more ocean view homes. Are they worth the extra cost the builder associates with the view and wants to pass on to you? Do you feel anything emotionally when looking at the ocean 7 miles away? Would it really help your home value if you are forced to sell in a few short years?

If I could afford it, I would be close enough to the ocean where the sounds of waves crashing lull me to sleep at night. Unfortunately, that's not my reality (maybe some day). For now I will dream of one of these amazing ocean view properties in San Diego that are always in short supply and can weather the real estate cycles. From an investment standpoint I will go for one of these as soon as it's financially feasible. For now, I will settle for my partial (peek-a-boo) handful-of-miles-away view that is only there if my neighbor's bamboo trees are swaying a certain direction in the breeze and I stick my cheek against the slider door in my upstairs bedroom.

You can receive help finding ocean view homes like these on my websites for real estate in Carlsbad, real estate in Encinitas, and the County's entire coastline.