The Hammond Real Estate Report

A mid-sized and affluent city in the San Diego metropolitan region, Coronado, California, lies five miles from downtown San Diego on a peninsula that is connected to the mainland by a 10-mile-long isthmus. For this reason, the city is often commonly also referred to as Coronado Island. The city’s residents are quite wealthy, and therefore Coronado real estate tends to contain some of the most expensive properties in the region. In 2009, the median price for single-family homes in Coronado was the second-highest of any city in the Central San Diego region, second only to La Jolla.

Last year, the market for Coronado homes for sale continued to show ongoing signs of struggle caused by the recession and the general downturn in the national and local economies. There were 105 single-family homes sold in 2009 in Coronado according to the San Diego Union Tribune’s annual zip code chart, and those homes sold at a median price of $1.25 million, a 14% decline in price year-over-year. The year saw 87 resell condos sold at a median price of $850,000, a decline of more than one-third annually. Additionally, there were two new homes sold, with a median price of $828,500, down 7% from 2008. Overall, all properties saw a median price of $1.09 million, a fall of 19%.

So far in 2010, the Coronado market has shown mixed signals for where it is headed in the new year. Condo prices are up, but home prices are still down from where they were one year earlier. According to the San Diego Union Tribune’s monthly zip code chart, in March there were 15 single-family resell homes sold in Coronado at a median price of $920,000, a 43% decline year-over-year and down from $1.2 million in December 2009. Condos, however, saw seven sales at a median price of $1.03 million, an 8 increase from March 2008’s prices. This was up substantially from December’s median condo price, which was $662,250. Additionally, there was one new home sold at a price of $1.07 million.

A mid-sized city located in the southwestern portion of Orange County, Laguna Niguel, California, is home to a population of more than 60,000 The city began as a master-planned community in the San Joaquin Hills. According to a 2008 estimate, the city’s estimated annual median household income was around $98,000, and housing prices are reflectively high, though in terms of Orange County, prices fall about in the mid-range. The Laguna Niguel real estate has suffered in recent years as the economy has tanked, forcing many homeowners into foreclosure and bringing down the values of many homes. However, other buyers have been able to hop into this market that they were previously priced out of, and sales volume has increased.

At the end of 2009, according to the Orange County Register’s annual zip code chart, the median annual price for homes in Laguna Niguel was $520,000, representing a 9.6% decrease from the 2008 annual median price. However, sales volume was up in 2009, with 972 Laguna Niguel homes for sale sold over the 12 months, a more than 27% increase year-over-year.

The Orange County Register’s monthly chart showed that in March, the median price in Laguna Niguel had fallen even further than its mark at the end of 2009, down to $518,750, though this was off a smaller percentage from March 2009, at a 7.4% drop. Sales volume continued to show more encouraging signs than price though, and in March, there were 97 homes sold, an increase of nearly 50% from the sales levels in March 2009.

In the most recent period for which statistics were available, a three-week period ended April 22, prices were down even further, at a median of $515,000, of 13% from the same time one year earlier, but sales were still up by a third annually, with 80 homes sold during those three weeks.

The Cupertino real estate market is closely linked to the rest of the Bay Area’s economic fortunes. According to a February 19, 2010 article in Business Week, “Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area dipped more than usual last month, and median prices are down from December, suggesting the market has lost some of the momentum it gained in the second half of 2009, according to a real estate tracking firm.” The piece, composed by Evelyn Nieves, continued to say that “San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported Thursday that home sales dropped by 38 percent from December in the nine-county Bay Area. A decline in sales from December to January is normal for the season, but on average, sales have dropped 28 percent, the firm said.”

Cupertino homes for sale also faced a decline in sales volume, according to a February 19, 2010 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. The piece found that “The Bay Area housing market lost some of its 2009 momentum in January, according to an authoritative real estate report, but prognosticators do not necessarily see a shift toward slower sales in 2010.” The article, written by Robert Selna, continued to say that “Data analyzed by MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm, show that 4,853 new and resold houses and condominiums closed escrow in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That represented a decline of 38 percent from December and a 4 percent drop from January 2009.”

The Cupertino real estate market also faced a foreclosure problem in the early portion of 2010, according to a February 17, 2010 article in the Mercury News. The piece found that “After taking a break for the holidays, foreclosures spiked in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in January. Despite efforts by the federal government and lenders to help people stay in their homes, foreclosures rose 37 percent in Santa Clara County last month from December, and 71 percent in San Mateo County, according to a report Tuesday from ForeclosureRadar.” The article, written by Sue McAllister and Pete Carey, continued to say that “In another sign that housing woes are far from over, more homes are lingering in the foreclosure process…”

An affluent, luxurious coastal community, La Costa is a neighborhood located within Carlsbad, California, in Northern San Diego County. As many cities in Southern California, the La Costa real estate market has been hit hard by the recession in the United States as the overall market has fallen, with home values plunging and foreclosures skyrocketing. Some say the market may have been overheated before, spurred on by speculation, which has contributed to its fall in prices. But lately the market shows slight signs for optimism.

Sales of La Costa homes for sale showed an increased activity last year (2009) versus 2008 as many players who were interested in owning La Costa homes but always felt themselves priced out of the market finally found themselves able to jump in and take advantage of the unusually low prices. Of course, much of the increased real estate sales activity in the country can also be attributed, at least in part, to the government’s program offering thousands of dollars in tax credits to those who buy a new home, which may have pushed many who were considering buying over the brink into closing.

In Carlsbad, of which La Costa is a part, sales showed a positively upward sloping trend all year, with the highest activity coming right at the year’s close in December, when 70 homes were sold. The area started 2009 with homes having a median price of more than $700,000, but this figure gradually fell to close the year out at around only $620,000. The median price hit bottom in October at around $600, and then saw increases in November and December.

Condos in the region followed a similar path. At the start of 2009, the median condo price was around $375,000, a figure that rose and fell throughout the year, and finished 2009 at around $330,000. The condo market saw its low point coming in the third quarter of 2009, and prices began to creep up in the fourth quarter. Condo sales in the La Costa area were healthy throughout the year, with around 25 or 30 per month.

Like many American markets, the Santa Cruz real estate market has suffered its bouts of ups and downs throughout the past couple of years amid the larger financial crisis afflicting the U.S. The government’s stimulus program offering up to $8,000 in tax rebates to select home buyers helped the market regain some of its ground in the latter half of 2009.

Unfortunately some of the ground that was recovered at the end of the year seems to have slipped back in 2010. In January, the average price for a single-family residence sold in the Santa Cruz market was $569,544, down from over $603,000 in December 2009. Similarly, the median price in January was $480,000, down from $555,000 in December.

There were 94 homes sold in January, the first month sales figures fell below 100 since February 2009. The month saw a total inventory of 691 Santa Cruz homes for sale on the market, 208 of which were new. The condo market saw 22 total sales, the lowest figure since March 2009. In January, there were 212 condos on the market, 54 of which were new. Home inventory now sits at just 4.7 months worth, down from 11.9 months a year ago, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Condos and townhomes in the Santa Cruz market saw a drop in prices in January as well. The average price for a sold condo was about $359,000, down from over $378,500 in December 2009. The median price fell from $350,000 in December to just $313,500 in January.