Where Has The Buyers' Market In San Diego Real Estate Gone?

When the housing inventory (for sale homes) drops below the 6-month mark here in San Diego it becomes a “sellers” market. We now have under a 5 month supply.

What that means is, if all homes currently for sale are sold, we will have none left after 4 ½ months. Even if banks decide to unload more foreclosed homes, it will not affect this by much at all.

With new regulations on listing a home on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) here in San Diego coming into affect at the end of May, we will only have a 2 month supply.

For homes priced under $500,000, there is the situation of multiple offers (my client just won out from 11 other offers) which means property is moving quickly, even with short sales. And talking of which, the new regulations mentioned above now require that short sales are placed into a ‘contingent’ status, between for sale and pending, as many of the short sales already have offers submitted to the lenders, with back-up offers being accepted only.

Is the bottom of the market here? What do you think …. If you are waiting for prices to drop further, look no more, they will be dictated by the sellers now, it’s a cycle, and we enjoyed the buyers market up until earlier this year, the wheels have turned.

Jane Loveday
Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://www.JaneLoveday.com

San Diego Property Virgins

Here in San Diego we are experiencing (what is not usually known either in our local press or the national press) a very, very busy buyers’ market with investors who usually peruse the stock market, now buying real estate. So what does that have to do with Property Virgins to coin a phrase from HGTV?!

Well, pretty much everything. With investors not taking stock in the stock market, they are taking leaps and bounds into our real estate market and buying with cash the best buys they can find. It is not unusual to find a property, call on offers in advance (we are a multiple offer market here now) and find you are gazumped (does anyone remember that phrase) by an all cash buyer.

It is inherent in this economy to look for the best investment for your dollar. First time homebuyers are beginning to get on the bandwagon, only to find in a lot of cases that investors are beating them to the post.

I frequently call ahead to ascertain if there are any offers on the table, at or above asking – no actually figures quoted – only to be asked if I am representing an investor (all cash) or a home-buyer.

What is going on????

I now tell my buyers NOT to listen to the media, read the press, listen to the news, because in reality we are in the middle of a crazy, frenzied situation. Tonight I showed 6 properties, of those 3 we had to wait for the key to be returned as it was already being shown and this is within a 1 hour window in the middle of the week – goodness knows what is happening with the rest of the hours in the day. One property was already in escrow – YIKES!

So my take… my point … we need to educate buyers as to what to expect in REAL LIFE, not in the media, and to be on top of all offers they think they need to make, give their highest and best, and have realistic expectations that the bargain is no longer there. Tomorrow may be too late, yesterday was right and today was a competition…..

Jane Loveday

Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://www.JaneLoveday.com