Q2 Real Estate Stagnates
Everyone in the Real Estate business knows that Q2 of any given year is the busiest, most important season for purchases. Looking at the data, however, it appears that Q2 in San Diego County has started rather slow, which may be a bad sign for the rest of the year for the real estate market.
According to the San-Diego Union-Tribune, “Last month, 3,057 homes sold for a median $427,000, real estate tracker DataQuick reported Tuesday. That’s a boost in activity from February’s 2,541 sales at a median $410,000, but it was a nearly 20 percent drop from the sales in March 2013. Last month was also the slowest for a March since 2009, toward the end of the Great Recession. March is generally the month in which activity in the housing market picks up, as weather improves and some families plan to move during the summer.”
Further they report, “Last month’s median $427,000 was still a 12.4 percent jump from March 2013’s $380,000 price tag, but the value gain continued an overall trend of slowing annual appreciation. In June, for instance, when the median was $416,500, home values were up 24.1 percent from a year earlier.”
For the most part real estate in San Diego County has shown signs of equalizing. Taxes over the last year, 2013, was one of the lowest in recent memories, not hitting the hard cap instated during the late 70s. Foreclosures have been down, property appreciation is on the rise, and the market has pushed toward equalizing between buyers and sellers. All the aggregate information points to a slow real estate market but not one that will be unprofitable.
Real estate investors and property owners should take this time to reevaluate their properties, the terms and conditions of their leases, and rates. With a slow start to the purchasing season, the market should hold well for leasing property owners. Especially in light of the end of the tax season, which may have affected home purchases due to the full implementation of Obamacare and other new laws that affect tax law and nearly every person in our nation.