Advertisement
Advertisement

San Diego home prices end year on high note — but not a record

A single-family home on Bath Avenue in Chula Vista listed for $809,000 in mid-January.
A single-family home on Bath Avenue in Chula Vista listed for $809,000 in mid-January. The 1,940-square-foot home last sold for $532,000 for 2017.
(Phillip Molnar/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The region saw significant home price gains throughout 2021.

Share

San Diego County’s median home price finished 2021 at $743,000, capping a year of record gains.

Local prices had increased 15.2 percent in a year as of December, reported CoreLogic/DQNews on Thursday. The median — which includes new and resale condos, townhouses and single-family homes — hit a peak of $750,000 in November.

This story is for subscribers

We offer subscribers exclusive access to our best journalism.
Thank you for your support.

Analysts have pointed to persistent low inventory, coupled with high demand, as the reason for big price increases. Competition among buyers has meant many offers over asking price and paying with all cash to make offers more enticing.

Advertisement

Homes are selling so quickly that it’s hard to track them. There were 2,260 homes for sale from Nov. 29 to Dec. 26, said the Redfin Data Center. However, 3,704 homes sold in December. (Sometimes sales can exceed inventory in a given month when the process to close a sale, called escrow, takes more than a month. Another reason: If homes sell too fast they don’t make final inventory numbers, which are calculated weekly and monthly.)

“It is extremely competitive. When something hits the market, I’m still seeing multiple offers,” said Chris Anderson, an agent with Coldwell Banker West.

She said potential buyers often end up competing with the same 10 to 15 people who are all vying for multiple properties. And if they all lose out on one home, they all migrate to the next one for sale.

Anderson, who was recently re-elected as the president of the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors, said she did not foresee any change in the market going into 2022 as the number of homes stays low and demand remains high.

San Diego’s low inventory is a result of several factors, according to local real estate agents and analysts. The biggest thing they say is keeping locals from selling their homes is concern they won’t be able to find another place in the area if they sell. Other factors include concerns over moving as the pandemic continues and home construction not keeping up with population growth.

Redfin said the median days on market for all San Diego County homes was 12 days, compared to 13 days around the same time in 2020. Things were much different before the pandemic: Homes could be expected to last 25 to 35 days before selling in the months preceding March 2020.

Rising interest rates don’t seem to be dissuading buyers. The interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.1 percent in December, reports Freddie Mac, up from 2.68 percent the year before. The rate is up from December 2020’s average of 2.68 percent, which was the lowest in records going back to 1971.

Prices were up for all home types in 2021:

  • Resale single-family homes were at a median of $820,000 in December, an increase of 14.5 percent in a year. The peak was $840,000 in July.
  • Newly built median was $704,000, increasing 3.9 percent in a year. Newly built includes condos, townhouses and single-family. The peak of $812,500 was set in October 2018 when there was an influx of luxury single-family homes for sale.
  • Resale condo median was $575,000, up 19.8 percent in a year. The peak was $590,000 in November.

Condos have increasingly become a way for first-time homebuyers to get a foothold in the market, said Robert Sizer, a real estate agent with AARE. Their first choice may have been a traditional, single-family home, but he said new buyers can benefit by expanding their preferences.

“It’s all about affordability,” Sizer said, “and it’s a bigger buyer pool.”

Price gains were significant across Southern California in 2021. San Bernardino County had the biggest yearly gain, 21.4 percent, to a median of $485,750.

It was followed by Riverside County with a median of $550,000, up 20.4 percent in a year; Orange County with a median of $935,000, up 17.6 percent in a year; Ventura County with a median of $751,000, up 15.5 percent in a year; San Diego County with the 15.2 percent increase; and Los Angeles County with a median of $805,000, up 15 percent in a year.