Several news items are very encouraging for San Diego real estate owners and sellers:
1. San Diego is third in the nation in office space added, behind Baltimore and Pittsburgh. While many other areas in the nation are showing a net loss in this arena, San Diego is moving ahead.
2. San Diego has shown actual pricing growth for most of last year. This runs counter to the conventional wisdom, of course, but even “conventional wisdom” is faltering in the tide of good news.
3. Even outlying areas are now seeing multiple offers made on property. I recently made numerous offers in the far eastern part of San Diego County for clients, and I was surprised to discover that even these properties are being “bid up.”
These three things are typically “harbingers of the dawn,” and indicate that the worst may well be over for the San Diego real estate market. In certain parts of the county, virtually every home is sold within a month, and even though prices are down, the sales pace is exceedingly brisk.
It’s also clear that the Fed is not about to force a rise in interest rates any time soon, leaving in place a vital part of the opportunity that new buyers need to make purchases–low-cost financing. If you are planning to sell your home, it’s a great time. Prices are down, it’s true, but they will stay down for some time, until the available foreclosed and short-sale inventory is gone, and until the job market improves even more. That is coming, but we have as much as a 5-year horizon for those changes to take place. Listing and selling now is also a good idea if you plan to re-purchase, since a sale now and a purchase will lock in today’s lower prices on the purchase.
If you have a short sale, please list your property right away. Lenders are looking much more favorably on short sales now than in the past, and they actually have indicated (at least on the national level) that they would prefer this to taking your house in foreclosure. Loan modification? Very few of the programs offered by lenders provide any real help to the homeowner–most will just bury you deeper, and many lenders use the modification process to calm you during the foreclosure they intended to do all along. If you want a FREE analysis of a modification offer, please email or call. Walking away? Do a short sale. There’s far less impact on your credit, and you will probably be able to stay in your home while the lender approves the sale and the property goes through escrow. You will have to move anyway, why not maximize the benefit to yourself in the process?
