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.

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.