Home prices in San Diego continued their very slow decline this month, dropping another 2.1% in October. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index said home prices dipped for the fifth consecutive month.
Gone are the days of 30 bids raising a home’s prices overnight.
“That market is done. It’s completely dead,” declared Miguel Contreras of Reign West Collective. “If you’re a seller, you have to get that out of your mind.”
Contreras, a real estate consultant, watched the median home prices drop more than $30,000 since June and once again sees homes sitting on the market for weeks. He blamed higher mortgage rates and fewer buyers willing to pay those rates.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
“We’ve been expecting this price reduction or price decrease in the market for some time now,” said Contreras. “The question I get often is, ‘Should I buy? Should I sell?’ and my response is always, ‘It depends. It depends on your situation.’”
Contreras said San Diego is in that odd spot where it's a good time to buy or sell.
“We are in that space,” he smiled. “It’s both a buyer’s and a seller’s market.”
Local
“What sellers are doing is they’re issuing credits to the buyer so that they can use those funds to do an interest rate buy-down. What that means is that they are able to decrease their monthly rate from say 7% down to 4%,” he explained. “For instance, say you’re selling a property at $640,000 as a seller. You’re going to give a $30,000 credit to the buyer. So, your net offer really is $610,000.”
Homes are still more than 9% more expensive than they were this time last year. So, sellers are still winning, but buyers are starting to catch up.
“My advice is for both sellers and buyers is to be patient,” said Contreras.
“If your goal is to sell, you have to be flexible with your pricing terms,” he warned. “Do that math and understand that if you’re greedy, you’re going to lose out.”
