Home Supply Up; Prices Remain Level
San Diego County housing prices continue to be flat, while the supply of unsold units keeps piling up, a real estate brokerage group said Tuesday. Economic uncertainty and growing signs of a recession are being blamed by industry officials for the local market’s increasing sluggishness.
The average price of an existing or resold San Diego-area house in October was $210,711----about $100 less than the average price in October, 1989, according to a survey released Tuesday by the San Diego Board of Realtors. The trade group’s survey is of member-brokered deals in San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, El Cajon and National City.
Prices of the county’s new housing are similarly flat. A new, single-family, detached house sold for an average price of $258,000 over the three months ended Sept. 30, up from $250,000 for the corresponding three months in 1989, said Russell Valone, president of Market Profiles of San Diego, a housing market research firm.
The price of a new condominium dropped to $168,000 during the third quarter, from $170,000 over the corresponding period in 1989.
Lower demand caused the supply of unsold existing houses in the San Diego area to jump to 14,000 in October, a 54% increase over the inventory at the same time last year, according to the Board of Realtors.
The total of new unsold units in the county’s subdivisions totaled 4,000 houses and condos by the end of September, more than double the 1,900-unit total at the same time last year, Valone said.
However, the unsold housing inventory still does not constitute a glut, Valone said, adding that last year’s market was “undersupplied.” And, with construction slowing because of the lack of construction financing, the local housing market could face a shortage next year, he said.
“Right now is a good time to be looking for a new house,” Valone said. “We could be short of product next year.”
Fixed-rate mortgages now carry interest rates of 10.25%.
