Name: San Diego home sales plummet to level not seen in nearly 30 years
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San Diego home sales plummet to level not seen in nearly 30 years

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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement Housing sales in San Diego County had their biggest annual drop in nearly 30 years in May as COVID-19 brought the market to crawl. There were 2,327 home sales in May, down 40.7 percent from the previous year, said CoreLogic data provided by DQNews. Analysts point to a lack of consumer confidence and sellers pulling homes off the market to wait out for a better selling time as reasons for few transactions. It represents the biggest annual drop in home sales since January 1991 when sales were down by 41.5 percent. AdvertisementDespite few sales, home prices were largely unchanged. The median home price of $590,000 was down about $4,000 , and still up 3.5 percent in a year. The home inventory decline resulted in bidding wars for a limited number of properties and pushed up prices or, at the very least, meant almost no price reductions. Mark Goldman, a real estate analyst with C2 Financial Corp., said there’s a host of reasons why sellers take homes off the market, such as the concern of people spreading COVID-19 at home showings, the concern that they won’t get a good price during heavy job losses and difficulty meeting cleaning requirements for home showings. “There’s a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “People aren’t sure where they are going to go, what’s going to happen to their income, not sure what is going to happen with home prices.”Goldman said it is still very much a seller’s market and potential buyers need to mentally prepare themselves for price wars. He said he didn’t see the home price dropping much in the coming year and a wave of foreclosures is unlikely because San Diegans could just sell and likely get a good price.There were around 5,200 homes listed for sale in San Diego County in May, said the , down from roughly 7,370 at the same time in 2019 and 6,780 in 2018. The tight inventory has made the process of showing homes difficult for motivated buyers, said Samantha O’Brien, a real estate agent with PorchLight in University Heights. She said buyers keep contacting her with properties they find online and she will call the seller’s agent only to find out they have already accepted an offer — or they will get quickly outbid. O’Brien said a lot of her buyers are attracted by low interest rates and have put a new importance on owning because many are working from home. She said it has been hard to communicate to sellers that they might want to consider putting homes on the market. “Sellers are thinking no one is buying because of the coronavirus,” she said. “They think people are just staying in their homes and not spending money when, in actuality, people are.”O’Brien said sales have picked up for her with eight so far in June, up from three in May and three in April. Interest rates are still at historic lows. The rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in May was 3.23 percent, said , down from 4.07 percent at the same time last year. Here’s how the median price fared by type: Average home prices were up annually across Southern California by 2.7 percent. San Bernardino County had the biggest jump, rising 6.7 percent for a median of $368,000. It was followed by Riverside County, up 6.5 percent for a median of $415,000; Orange County up 4.2 percent for a median of $750,000; San Diego County with the 3.5 percent increase; Los Angeles County up 1.6 percent for a median of $620,000. Ventura County was down 1.7 percent for a median of $580,000. Get U-T Business in your inbox on Mondays Get ready for your week with the week’s top business stories from San Diego and California, in your inbox Monday mornings. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Load More Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement Housing sales in San Diego County had their biggest annual drop in nearly 30 years in May as COVID-19 brought the market to crawl. There were 2,327 home sales in May, down 40.7 percent from the previous year, said CoreLogic data provided by DQNews. Analysts point to a lack of consumer confidence and sellers pulling homes off the market to wait out for a better selling time as reasons for few transactions. It represents the biggest annual drop in home sales since January 1991 when sales were down by 41.5 percent....

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Phillip Molnar

PhillipMolnar

The San Diego Union-Tribune, the region's leading news source since 1868. Follow our journalists, too: http://j.mp/UTstaff

San Diego home sales plummet to level not seen in nearly 30 years

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