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January 12, 2011

2010 San Diego Real Estate Market Summary
This last year of 2010 was a real up and down rollercoaster emotionally and economically - with both highs and lows. The year started off with a surge of sales and expectations that the market would settle into a positive pattern. The market was heavily stimulated with government propping it up. There was a federal tax credit of $8,000 for first time buyers. The State of California offered two billion in $10,000 incentives for buyers. Both of these programs ended during the first part of the year and by September the number of sales dropped to off dramatically. By October sales has slowed so much some people were once again talking about a double dip. There were fewer sales in 2010 than in 2009, and the good news is prices of homes under a million in areas like La Jolla, UTC, Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Poway and Scripps Ranch held steady and the median home sale price for San Diego County was up for the year, and for each month over the prior year prices held steady or was up.

One of the dominant questions being asked is "has the market bottomed" and the answer seems to be location, location, location. Two sources(MSNBC web, and New York Times web) I recently reviewed talked about the best markets in the country pointing to specific areas like the cities of La Jolla, Carlsbad, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco as being strong markets, and others like Sacramento, and Las Vegas NV, are still in a decline.

The Inventory of high end homes over $2,000,000 is way down from 2009, when it was close to a three year inventory, to a point now of less than a year. If you look at another market perspective the inventory for homes under $500,000 in University City with three bedrooms and two baths is very low and the inventory has an average time on market of less than 60 days. For a look at the market you are most interested in contact us at RuthMills@MillsTeam.com , it will be our pleasure to put together an analysis of your specific neighborhood, or area of interest.

Overall the sense I get from the most recent publications and our own experience in this market for the last 25 years is that the market will continue to strengthen. While it will probably be slow for a while, as the economy will slowly recover nationally. One thing that everybody appears to be sure of is that the cost of housing is as inexpensive as it has been in a very long time. That is a topic for another day soon.



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