COUNTY’S MEDIAN PRICE FOR HOMES HITS NEW PEAK

Stubbornly low inventory keeps market hot even as mortgage rates rise

San Diego County’s median home price continued to smash records — despite rising mortgage rates and increased costs for gas and more — to a record of $840,250 in April.

The median price has risen 20 percent in a year, said CoreLogic/ DQNews on Wednesday. The record — a combination of new and resale condos, townhouses and single-family homes — surpasses the previous peak in March of $805,000.

Prices rose across Southern California in April with all six counties hitting new highs. Real estate agents said buyers anticipate mortgage rates will continue to increase so they wanted to get into a home as soon as possible. At the same time, the number of homes for sale has remained stubbornly low — keeping the market highly competitive.

Hope Atuel, CEO of the San Diego-based Asian Real Estate Association of America, said increasing mortgage rates are expected to soften the market. However, there is still high demand and very low inventory, which is pushing up prices.

“It’s still a sellers’ market,” she said.

Atuel said she still expects home prices to continue to increase, even if things slow down slightly. She noted homes are still selling extremely fast. The median days on market for a San Diego County home was 8.2 days in April, said the Redfin Data Center. That is about the same as last year, but down from 13 in 2020 and 25 in 2019.

“The demand continues to put constriction and compression into the market,” she said. “I don’t think it’s quite going to be the double-digit appreciation we’ve seen the last 12 to 18 months but I do feel, just like our members, home prices will continue to appreciate.”

The average rate in April for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.98 percent, its highest monthly average since 2010, said Freddie Mac.

Jeff Grant, owner and agent with Sand & Sea Investments, said sellers are having their own reaction to rising rates. He said many sellers are concerned they might lose their window to cash out, so there has been a slight increase in the number of homes on the market.

He said he used to get seven to 15 offers on homes at the start of the year, but it has slowed to three to five in recent weeks. However, it hasn’t made a dent in pricing with dedicated buyers.

For instance, Grant recently closed on a two-bedroom resale condo in Carmel Valley for $910,000, more than $110,000 above the asking price, despite only getting three offers. He said the highest a condo had gone for in the same complex was $815,000 — and that one had been extensively remodeled, unlike the condo he recently sold.

There were minor signs the home market could be on its way to cooling, but it was more like throwing a glass of water on a wildfire. From April 4 to May 1, 4 percent of homes had a price reduction in San Diego County, said Redfin. That is a very small amount but worth noting because that figure hasn’t been this high since around November. Also, looking ahead a few weeks, that number has increased to 5 percent.

Inventory is slightly rising — but still way down from historic norms. There were 3,101 listings from April 4 to May 1, up from lows of around 2,000 at the start of the year. At the same time last year, there were 3,801 listings in 2021, 5,975 in 2020 and 8,050 in 2019.

The resale home median is nearing $1 million. It reached a median — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — of $950,000, up from a median of $925,000 the previous month.

The resale condo median was $655,000, up from a median of $640,000 in March. The newly built median was $789,000, a figure that combines condos, townhouses and single-family homes. A peak of $812,500 was set in October 2018 when there was an influx of luxury single-family homes for sale.

Here are some examples of homes that can be purchased around the median price in San Diego County:

• 12061 Tivoli Park Row, No. 2: A three-bedroom, 1,361-square-foot townhouse on the market for $847,000. The Carmel Mountain Ranch home was built in 1996.

• 4519 Patria Drive: A 1,318-square-foot singlefamily Rolando home on the market for $839,000. It was built in 1957 and has three bedrooms.

• 7306 Alicante Road, unit 9: A 1,552-square-foot La Costa condo with two bedrooms on the market for $840,000. Built in 1975, it recently had a $10,000 price drop.

• 28330 W Meadow Glen Way: A 2,244-square-foot single-family home in Escondido listed for $844,900. It was built in 1979 and has three bedrooms.

Price gains were up across Southern California in March. Orange County was up the most annually, 20.6 percent, for a median of $1.1 million.

It was followed by Riverside County, up 20.4 percent for a median of $590,000; San Diego County with the 20 percent rise; San Bernardino County, up 19.9 percent for a median of $519,000; Ventura County, up 15.4 percent for a median of $815,000; and Los Angeles County, up 15.3 percent for a median of $865,000.