San Diego Real Estate - San Diego Homes Sale: July 2010

We've put together a great little tool for San Diego real estate buyers.  The San Diego Homes Toolbar is an add-on that works with Internet Explorer and Firefox.  It allows users to easily navigate to listings of homes for sale on a variety of websites.  And when the user finds a home of interest, a button on the toolbar allows them to contact their agent immediately for additional information and advice.

The customized Google search is linked to websites specializing in real estate and San Diego news.  The Twitter link shows tweets from San Diego real estate agents and San Diego news outlets including the San Diego Union Tribune, the Del Mar Times, and the North County San Diego news.  The RSS feed distributes San Diego news headlines from a variety of similar sources.

Here's additional details and the download to the San Diego Homes Toolbar.

And here's a screenshot (snipped in two pieces so that it will fit the screen here):

This is technology from Conduit.com, and it has a lot of potential for Realtors.  Some of the add-ons are from Realbird.com.  Their map-based search of MLS listings is particularly good, and property showing notifications are sent to the agent through an RSS feed.

The toolbar is a nice service to be able to provide.  I plan on letting all of my clients know about it, and hopefully they will see the advantages of using it.  I really think it will make searching for homes in San Diego a lot more fun and interesting.

If you've had experience using a Conduit toolbar, I'd love to hear from you!

Fourth of July in San Diego can be a great time, but often hit-or-miss in terms of the weather.  The "june gloom" along the coast sometimes comes in late and stays through the beginning of July.  That's what happened this year.  Saturday July 3 partly cloudy, Sunday July 4 very cloudy and overcast, and Monday July 5 even more cloudy and overcast.  When weather is like this, tourists tend to call the San Diego real estate agents for tours. 

As a long-time Realtor in San Diego, I've grown accustomed to working holidays.  But if I'm working on a holiday, I need it to be for people who really need my help.  Any real estate professional in a resort destination could fill every holiday week with appointments to give tours of the city.  Let's face it, a lot of people expect Realtors to be tour guides.  But that's not what Realtors are for.  We help people buy and sell homes.

Would you call your lawyer for tour of the courthouse on the Fourth of July?  Would your doctor meet you to give a tour of the hospital?  Not on a holiday weekend, and not any day of the week. Well, Realtors aren't tour guides either.  In San Diego there's a nice red double-decker bus for that and it costs about 25 bucks.

Last year I helped a very nice couple close on a San Diego home purchase on Christmas Eve.  During a nice conversation a week before Christmas I learned that the family was relocating to the area on January 1 and needed to find a house... quick.  Well, that's when I jump into action.  We spent three solid days touring homes and writing offers. Then on Christmas the clients, and I, all had time to relax after a job well done.

There are Realtors in every city who will go the extra mile to make sure our clients receive the service they need.  So don't hesitate to call... but please call us for the right reasons! When you need to buy or sell a home in San Diego, I'll come through for you every time. 

Like neighboring Rancho Santa Fe real estate, homes at The Crosby are synonymous with luxury.

The Crosby At Rancho Santa Fe - Premier Luxury Home Building Site - San Diego, CA

Overview Maps Photos Features Description Neighborhood San Diego Real Estate IDX Search

$1,200,000 Lots and Land For Sale Main Features Lot: 1.14 acre(s) Location 16431 Top O Crosby San Diego, CA 92127 To get updates on open home dates and other property events, please click the "Like" button below:

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Geoffrey Schiering San Diego Real Estate Professionals at Keller Williams (619) 200-7612 homes@sdrealtypros.com http://www.sdrealtypros.com Listed by: Keller Williams - Schiering Team

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Anyone bemoaning the fact that the $8,000 federal income tax credit has expired should be pleased to see today's news.  The interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages has dropped to an average 4.58%.  When the tax credit expired the interest rate was closer to 5.25%.  The drop of more than half a percent is a significant savings to anyone thinking of buying a home.

San Diego homes start at around $400,000.  With twenty percent down on a $400,000 house, the monthly payment (including property taxes) on a 5.25% loan would be approximately $2,100.  With an interest down to 4.58% the monthly payment is closer to $1,970.  Obviously that $130 per month savings adds up over time.

In one year the $130 savings becomes $1,560.  Consider most home owners will stay in the house for at least five years.  The $130 monthly savings adds up to $7,800 over just five years.

And most home buyers today are planning to stay in their house for between five and ten years.  After ten years difference of $130 per month adds up to $15,600.  It starts to make the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit pale in comparison.

So waiting to buy may not have been such a bad thing.  But one thing is for certain.  These low interest rates cannot last long. Mortgage rates haven't been this low since the 1950's. The wobbly global economy spurred what the Wall Street Journal called a "race for 'safe' assets" such as U.S. Treasuries.  When treasury prices are pushed up, yields are pushed down, and mortgage rates fall.  But when investors start moving back into equities the interest rates will rise again.

Standard & Poor's Case Shiller Index was just released for April. It shows San Diego houses have increased in value for each of the past 12 consecutive months, through April 30.  The index is always two months behind, so that's their most recent report. So today's big news in San Diego real estate isn't really such big news.  We've been talking about it for the past year. 

San Diego homes were second to San Franciso in terms of appreciation.  San Francisco showed a 12-month increase of 18 percent.  San Diego was 11.7 percent.  Minneapolis 9.5 percent.  Cleveland 6.8%.  Eleven of the twenty major metro areas in the US are now up for the year ending April, and nine are still down.  The largest drop during that twelve month period was Las Vegas. Still falling.

I reviewed the house price index methodology and talk about it on my San Diego real estate blog.  I really can't find any fault with the methodology.  It's the same methodology used by the fedreal government for many real estate market studies.  They compare prices of resale homes that have the same general characteristics.  They attempt to exclude properties that have been improved or renovated since the last sale, and they exclude properties that have been flipped by investors.  And only arm's-length transactions are considered, so houses that are transferred between family members are also excluded.

Of the twenty metropolitan areas tracked in the index, all twenty showed price increases between the March and April index.  This could easily have been a runup related to the $8,000 tax credit.  But San Diego is the only city that has posted increases in each of the past twelve months.  Hard to believe that that's solely related to the tax credit.

No, I really think that there is sufficient demand for san diego homes to support prices at their current levels. This is particularly true at the entry level, though there's still going to be some downward pressure at the top end.  I wouldn't, however, count on 11.7percent a year, and the appreciation rate will probably even drop by the end of the year.  Something in the 4 to 6 percent range is much more likely.