The San Diego real estate market has shown signs of stability in 2011.  The number of San Diego houses sold in the twelve months ending December 29, 2011 increased slightly over the same period in 2010.  The average sale price was down slightly, and the average amount of time required to sell a home in San Diego increased slightly.  But the overall picture suggests that the San Diego real estate market has hit a bottom and has reached equilibrium.

San Diego Houses

There were 21,226 San Diego houses sold in the twelve months ending December 29, 2011.  The average sale price for houses in San Diego County was $483,670 for an average three bedroom, two bathroom house with an average of 2,035 square feet of living area.  The average market time was 76 days on market.  Anything less than 90 days is considered a healthy real estate market. The average sale price to list price ratio was 95.6%, so the average buyer is able to negotiate a purchase price only 4.4% below the list price.

San Diego Houses Sold 12 Months Ending December 29, 2011

San Diego Homes Prices

Compare the same twelve month period ending December 29, 2010.  Last year there were 21,143 houses sold, at an average sale price of $516,100 for an average three bedroom, two bathroom house with 2,006 square feet of living area.  So the number of San Diego houses sold in 2011 was up a statistically insignificant 0.4% over the prior year.  The average sale price was down approximately 6%, the average cost per square foot of San Diego houses in 2011 was $234.60 per square foot of living area, as compared to $246.34 per square foot in 2010… a decline of less than 5%.

The number of days required to sell the average San Diego house increased by 10 days, from 66 days in 2009.  However, both the slight decline in sale prices and the slight increase in market times can likely be attributed to an increase in the number of short sales in San Diego between 2010 and 2011.  There were 4,072 houses sold in short sales in 2010 compared to 4,913 San Diego short sales in 2011.  Short sales are sales in which the home seller will net less from the sale of their home than they owe to the bank.  The term Short Sale derives from the fact that the bank is asked to forgive the portion of the loan which the home seller is “short” on funds.  Due to the bank involvement, short sales take significantly longer to complete than traditional sales.  The average number of days on market for short sales of San Diego homes in 2011 was 150 days.

San Diego Houses Sold 12 Months Ending December 29, 2010

Overall there was little change in the San Diego real estate market between 2010 and 2011.  Home buyers are seeing value at current prices, and the number of houses sold in San Diego increased in the past year, with prices down only slightly.  Bargain hunters are snapping up great deals on San Diego short sales.  Moving forward, outlook is very similar for 2012.  With prices down and interest rates low, it’s a great time to buy a home in San Diego.

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