Friday, October 9, 2009

San Diego Luxury Homes in Slump

By Adam Pascu

The leper in the san diego real estate market this year is the luxury homes segment. We are currently experiencing a buildup of inventory, low sales volume, dropping values, high numbers of expired/cancelled listings, and an increase in short-sales and foreclosures.

Over the last year, there has been a steady increase in the number of homes for sale in the upper price ranges. I noticed this at the end of last year and the current stats are very concerning. Try doing an MLS search for San Diego homes at my website. Use one zip code like 92037 for La Jolla or 92103 for Mission Hills. Do different searches based on price ranges and you will see that there is a lot more for sale the higher you go in price.

Partial cause for the rise in homes on market is that there are very few sales occurring. While you cannot find a good online source for sold data, I have provided one for you in Mission Hills. If you visit my Mission Hills real estate website, you will see statistics outlying how sales over $1.4m have dropped significantly in the past 2 years.

As a result of the decreasing sales and increasing inventory, we are now realizing a noticeable drop in property values. When sales pick up, it will be more apparent where the property values are at, but in some markets, where there are so very few sales, it is quite hard to estimate where the actual value of a home for sale currently sits.

A large percentage of all expired & cancelled listings this year has been in the upper price ranges. We are seeing more and more expired luxury homes in San Diego that didn't sell. Some come back on market and some just give up.

With such a bad economy and dwindling demand from buyers in the San Diego luxury market, we are seeing the occasional short-sale or foreclosure, which we never saw before this year. While this has been common in the lower price ranges, it is rare in the upper prices. As foreclosures, short-sales and other must sell listings (i.e. trust sales) enter the market, they will drive prices & home values down to the point at which buyers agree that the price is a fair value.

In short, it may be a great time to buy San Diego luxury homes, but not to sell them. With prices dropping and a lot of great homes to choose from, this is a great opportunity for those that are not feeling the economic pinch to prey off of other?s misfortunes. I predict that we will continue to see prices drop for 6-12 months.

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