Short Sales in San Diego County - Get the Facts
Posted by Diane White | Currently 1 Comment »
What are short sales? What is happening with the short sale market? Are they selling? Where are they? Here is the Statistics Report for the activity in the last 90 days on all homes, except for manufactured, in San Diego County. Statistics supplied courtesy of Sandicor.
San Diego County Short Sales
To summarize:
- There are currently 6,445 Active Listings. This is a little misleading because most short sales are kept in the active status, even after the seller has accepted an offer, until there is an formal acceptance by the lender(s).
- There are currently 1,778 short sales in the pending status, which means in escrow.
- There have been 4,109 that have closed escrow in the last 90 days.
What are they? Short sales are homes that are for sale and the seller’s loan(s) are more than what the property can sell for. They put it on the market in the hopes that the bank will take less than what they owe. This used to be a process that could take up to 6 months before the lender assigned a negotiator and many went into foreclosure before they ever had a chance to get it approved.
Most banks now have systems in place and as the report shows, they are closing successfully. In fact, most of the time there are multiple offers…you will note that the sales price to listing price is now 97% and average days on the market are down to 99.
Where are they? I did a search for some regions and note the following:
North County Coastal = Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad & Oceanside
- 738 Actives 200 Pending 186 Solds
North County Inland= Scripps Ranch, Rancho Bernardo/Penasquitos, Mira Mesa, Poway & Ramona
- 537 Actives 205 Pending 185 Solds
Metro Areas = Downtown, Hillcrest, North Park, Mission Valley, Clairemont, Tierrasanta & University City
- 1,096 Actives 329 Pending 283 Solds
South Bay = Bonita, Chula Vista & National City
- 1,727 Actives 339 Pending 159 Solds - by far the highest area
If you have stayed away from short sales, you might want to reconsider…many are selling before they become foreclosed on.
Click here to read my previous blog posts and let me know if there is something in particular you would like me to research.
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Related Posts: Area Information, Area Statistics, Buyers, Cardiff, Carlsbad, Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Downtown, Encinitas, Financial news, Foreclosures, La Costa, Leucadia, Market Trends, Oceanside, Rancho Bernardo, Real Estate News, San Diego, Short Sales, Solana Beach
Homeowners Associations….Your Friend or Foe?
Posted by Traci Hansen | Leave A Comment »
In my line of work I hear many conflicting opinions about homeowners associations. Unfortunately, most home-owners view their homeowners associations as the “Neighborhood Mafia” or the “Secret Police”.
You may find yourself asking a lot of questions. “Why can’t I put up a fence? Who cares if I park in the road? Who are you to tell me to mow my lawn? So what if I put a basketball net on the ground! I own this house, who the heck are you to tell me not to change my oil in the driveway? My house needs to be painted – why do I need to ask permission if I want to change the color? This is my property, I pay the mortgage, my taxes and my HOA dues, I can afford to do so by working out of my truck, but I cannot park it in my driveway!” 
Does this sound familiar? I am sure it does. We as homeowners spend a lot of money on our homes and we want to live the way we want to. We all purchased our homes because it is good to invest in real estate. We all wanted the American dream of homeownership and now we have it. But why is it not what we hoped for?
The truth of the matter is that we are taught that you can’t lose by purchasing real estate. The problem with this concept is that it is not true. As we are seeing in today’s market, property values are not always on the rise and some areas are hit harder than others. So what do property values have to do with irritating HOAs? In a word…everything!
First, what we need to realize is that homeowners associations are bodies of mini-governments that are put into place to enforce covenants and restrictions placed on the deed of the property that you purchased.
Although you own your property, you purchased it along with the responsibilities and restrictions that have been legally placed on the deed. Covenants and restrictions are placed on a property to protect the neighborhood values. When you purchase a home, you choose it for several reasons. One reason should have been because you liked the neighborhood and feel that it is a safe place to live as well as a solid investment. Whether you realize it or not, the covenants are laws that you accept and agree to abide by when you consummated the purchase of a home that has restrictive covenants.
These laws specifically address items that affect the visual appeal of the neighborhood. Lawns, fences, parked cars, and cleaning up after pets are usually the hottest topics of conversation. The reason is because these items most affect the value of the entire neighborhood. When someone is shopping for a home, their first impression is the neighborhood. Lawns that are browned out, full of weeds, or are overgrown give a home buyer the impression that homeowners do not care about the neighborhood. Many times, a buyer may pass a house they love because the neighbor may have and overgrown lawn, a poorly constructed fence, siding that is showing wear that needs painting, or even parking in the street.
So, how does this affect the value of the entire neighborhood? What will end up happening is that the sellers will have to lower their price in order to get their home sold? Consequently, the price of every home that is sold will be determined by the most recent home sale in the neighborhood.
The bottom line is that HOAs are here to protect you. Don’t hold it against the president of the association or any member of the association for that matter. Be respectful of your neighbors and abide by the rules. If you don’t like the direction the neighborhood is moving in, go to the HOA meetings and voice your opinion. Better yet, volunteer to become a member of the board.
In the end, if you don’t like the rules of the neighborhood, purchase a home that doesn’t have restrictive covenants. You will be able to park your RV in your yard, but on the flip side, your neighbor is allowed to park a 1952-model school bus with no windows in theirs.
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Related Posts: Education, Homeowners, Homeowners Associations
Not In My Backyard…Hall Property Debate
Posted by Traci Hansen | Leave A Comment »
Before becoming a Cardiffian , I had lived in Olivenhain, both communities of Encinitas. Both with very different views on the proposed project consisting of 44 acres, located adjacent to I-5 on the west side of the highway and south of the Von’s shopping center off Santa Fe, commonly referred to as the Hall Property.
My daughters have played on the Encinitas soccer teams since they were small and I have coached for that league for a number of years also. The Hall property issue has been circulating for almost as long as my family has been involved with Encinitas Soccer. I was one of those gung-ho parents that were signing petitions or standing in front of Henry’s having others sign. 
It was my opinion that The Hall Property was going to be the perfect place for my kids and their friends to ride their skateboards, Swim at the aquatic facilities, hang out at the teen center as well as having an amphitheatre, dog park, trails and gardens, toddler parks, all of this accompanying the 5 athletic fields for baseball and soccer.
I realize now that I had a very narrow utopian point of view. This was not going to affect my neighborhood, if this proposition was going to take place at the end of Lone Jack or Fortuna Ranch the people of Olivenhain would be against the magnitude that this proposed project is threatening also.
A few of the major issues are;
1. Traffic, the parking on their streets from the spillover from the parking lots that accommodate 419 parking spaces and a projected 1500 cars per day, but up to 3000 per day for tournaments.
2. The proposed lights on the 5 sports fields will be over 90 feet tall and 60 feet tall on the swimming complex. These will be the tallest structures in Encinitas and will be visible from many parts of the city, especially when turned on. The lights are currently proposed to be on until midnight on weekends, with permits. The lights when coupled with coastal fog and low clouds will cause a cloud of light over Cardiff.
3. The noise levels, the competitive sports activities planned for the park will create noise for the neighbors. The intensity of activity planned for the park may create an intrusive level of noise for the neighborhood. This can go until midnight on the weekends. It appears as if everyone wants another sports park, Cardiff is merely asking for it to be scaled back. Cardiff already has a sports park within 1 mile of the Hall Property.
I would not be surprised of the negative response if the shoe was on the other foot so to speak. It is my opinion that a compromise has to be reached. If everyone will put down the signs and have a meeting of the minds, it is not that hard to figure out Cardiff doesn’t need any more traffic than necessary , and the amount of cars parking on the streets will bring trash and litter to our neighborhoods. All of which can have a negative impact on the property values for those who live in the immediate vicinity of the park.
Source: Hall Property Draft EIR
Traffic analysis by Smith Engineering Management, Traffic consultant
The entire draft environmental impact report of the Hall Park is available on the city’s Web site at:
http://www.ci.encinitas.ca.us/Government/publicD/Hall_Draft_Program_EIR/.
For more information on Friends of the Hall Property, visit www.hallpropertypark.com
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