San Diego real estate news stays positive for the summer home buying season
June 29th, 2009 Categories: Client Testimonials, San Diego County Community News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week, San Diego county Real Estate News
SAN DIEGO-
“With affordability for first-time buyers at a record high, sales of existing, single- family homes continued to remain above the 500,000 level for the ninth consecutive month,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak. “Buyers are beginning to realize that the combination of favorable home prices, historically low mortgage rates, and first-time home buyer tax credits, may not align again for many years.
“The sales gains over last year have diminished in recent months,” he added. “This trend is expected to continue through the end of the year, as limited inventory at the moderate and low end of the market constrains sales activity,” he said.- www.car.org/newsstand *
We ended last week with continuing positive real estate news and market conditions and confirmation of our interpretation of what is happening in the field.
The market variables, as quoted above, continue to present a great opportunity for buyers with the exception of inventory index which statewide has dropped by over half from 8.7 months to 4.2.
C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index fell to 4.2 month
s in May, compared with 8.7 months in May 2008.*
But turning our attention back to the positive, if you have been sitting on the fence and are renting, consider this;
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Southern California buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,052 last month, up from $1,038 the previous month, and down from $1,782 a year ago(my edit). Adjusted for inflation, current payments
are 52.1 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 60.7 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.- DQNews.com**
For the home seller in the $500,000+ market, you are seeing some of your first good news as this market has been stagnate for some time due to the cost of the “jumbo” loans. Additionally, this is typically a move up market, where in the buyer in selling or has sold real estate in order to move up. With market conditions so heavily favoring buyers there are not too many people selling in order to buy.
Conversely, sales $500,000 and above rose from 15.2 percent of sales in April to 17 percent in May. The last time the $500,000-plus market made up more than 17 percent of all sales was last October, when they were 19.9 percent of sales.**
