I recently wrote an article outlining our trend of increasing sales number that really started kicking in March of 2008 and continued into the summer. In July, the trend went down slightly and I was uncertain where July and August would take us. Check out the article here. Well, the numbers are out. July did well and August, even better.
August, 2008 had the highest number of detached homes countywide go into escrow since July of 2005. This is great news for homeowners and our San Diego real estate market in general.
In addition, inventory of available homes went significantly down in one month (over 1,000 less than in July). This is also significant because August is usually the peak of inventory with regards to seasonal variations. It's been almost a year and a half since inventory was this low, which is not that low, but certainly going in the right direction, if you are a San Diego homeowner.
This drop in inventory has a few factors:
- There was a drop in foreclosure filings in August
- There were more sales in August
- There were less new listings and re-listings
People keep asking me: "Adam, when are we going to hit bottom?" I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in central and coastal San Diego real estate markets, we have already hit bottom in the low-mid price ranges (barring any massive national economic crises). I am seeing multiple offers (up to 10 and 20) on the competitively-priced good deals in the lower price ranges. Investors are talking about immediate cash flow with 20% down, which we haven't heard in a long-time.
San Diego neighborhoods like East County (El Cajon), East South Bay (Otay, Eastlake), and North County inland still have a higher inventory and about a year to go before bottom, but now is the time to get a great deal in those areas before they do hit bottom.
Search all available San Diego homes for sale here at my website.
Adam Pascu
Team 73 Degrees
Keller Williams Realty
