{"id":249883,"date":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/unreal-estate\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T08:00:00","slug":"unreal-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/unreal-estate\/","title":{"rendered":"Unreal estate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts say the\u00a0Uptown real estate\u00a0market is calming\u00a0down, but things\u00a0appear different<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Michael Bueno | Visitas a domicilio<\/p>\n

Is it just me, or has the local real estate market gone completely crazy in the last few months? The asking price for a three-bedroom bungalow in the West End neighborhood of North Park has recently crossed the $900,000 mark.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, $900,000. For a three-bedroom bungalow. In North Park. The former middle-class neighborhood that was once famous for its abundance of churches is now famous for its proliferation of craft-beer pubs \u2014 and skyrocketing real estate prices.<\/p>\n

For the sober-minded, $900,000 is a staggering number because, well, it\u2019s practically a million. Practically a million bucks for a house that sold for $150,000 20 years ago, and cost about $3,000 when first built.<\/p>\n

\"Hot<\/a>
Hot on the market: This two-bedroom, two-bath in North Park\u2019s West End is listed for $859,000. (Photo by Michael Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At first glance, or even second glance, there seems to be a disconnect here. The 2015 median house price in North Park, according to a February 15, 2016 feature in the Union\/Tribune, was $450,000. North Park, the story noted, is among the 18 ZIP codes in San Diego that have returned to their pre-recession median home price. But $450,000 is a far cry from $900,000. In fact, asking twice the median price \u2014 and getting it \u2014 seems the very definition of \u201cirrational exuberance.\u201d So is the market slightly unhinged?<\/p>\n

I put the question to several local real estate experts, including Ron Rooney, who was the listing agent for a three-bedroom bungalow on 28th Street that sold for $925,000 in December. It should be noted that I caught Rooney in an airport in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico waiting to board a plane \u2014 not the best place to talk real estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still seeing prices trending up and still seeing multiple offers in our area,\u201d he said, trying to overcome the cacophony around him. \u201cIn the past month, the properties we\u2019ve put out offers on have had multiple offers. The market is pretty robust.\u201d<\/p>\n

But is it too robust?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think \u2026 some initial listing prices may be higher than warranted. But we\u2019ve just been seeing very steady, stable appreciation \u2014 not like what we were seeing before the bubble in 2008. It feels comfortable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked him about a particular listing in the neighborhood that exceeded the $900,000 mark. Ever judicious (a character trait probably left over from his days as a lawyer), Rooney refused to address any specific active listing \u2014 but he was willing to talk in generalities.<\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/a>
Historic in more ways than one: This bungalow in the Dryden District sold for more than $900,000 in December. (Photo by Michael Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn general, I think what happens is agents look at price per square foot on other properties and try to do a dollar-per-square-foot comparison. And it doesn\u2019t always translate. You might be able to find comps to support that kind of pricing. But they\u2019re not comparable properties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rooney brings up the example of the David Dryden Craftsman on 28th Street he just sold. When determining the value of a house of the same size in the neighborhood, he said, \u201can appraiser might look at that as a comp. But buyers wouldn\u2019t look at it as a comp.\u201d He explains there are too many other variables involved with vintage homes. It\u2019s not only about the numbers. For the homebuyer, there are other factors \u2014 esthetic, personal, emotional, historic.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the other real estate agents I talked to were reluctant to say that $900,000 was too much to pay for a bungalow. And no one was willing to put the word \u201ccrazy\u201d and \u201chome prices\u201d in the same sentence, particularly when talking to the media. Fortunately, however, through the wonders of the Internet, I was able to verify that there is indeed something wacky going on with prices in the West End.<\/p>\n

Here are the numbers (you\u2019ll notice a rapidly rising price-per-square-foot): In May 2015, an 1,804-square-foot house in the 3500 block of Utah Street sold for $851,000, or $472 a square foot. In August, a 1,372-square-foot house in the 3500 block of 29th Street sold for $750,000, or $547 a square foot. In September, an historic house in the same block sold for $950,000, or $541 a square foot. In December, a 1,530-square-foot house in the 3500 block of 28th Street sold for $925,000, or $604 a square foot. Finally, in January 2016, a 1,272-square-foot house in the 3700 block of 28th Street sold for $790,000, or $621 a square foot.<\/p>\n

So, from May 2015 to January 2016, prices per square foot in this four-block area rose 31 percent, from $472 to $621. And the heat in this micro-neighborhood isn\u2019t a complete aberration. According to Trulia<\/a>, the median price of a three-bedroom house in North Park went up 21.8 percent in 2015. Contrast that to all of San Diego, where the median price was only up 6.9 percent. (Predictions are for an even smaller increase this year.)<\/p>\n

Although some buyers are getting priced out of the market \u2014 the percentage of renters in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas rose from 36.1 percent in 2006 to 41.1 percent in 2014 \u2014 there are still plenty willing to pay above asking price for an historic home in Uptown San Diego. The downside to that is, at that price, fewer preservation-minded people can afford to buy and restore a vintage house. When you\u2019re paying close to a million dollars, a home becomes more of an investment, and there\u2019s more incentive to remodel it as such: thinking in terms of square footage, number of bathrooms, a recently remodeled kitchen \u2014 all those things that HGTV tells us will increase the selling price of a house.<\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/a>
Sale pending: North Park, three bedrooms, 2 baths, $915,000 (Photo by Michael Good)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the West End, what had once been a funky, fringe neighborhood for urban pioneers willing to turn a blighted area into a bungalow heaven has now become a magnet for flippers and wealthy investors. Young people, even successful young people, are not able to buy in as easily as they once could. According to Trulia, older millennials, ages 26 through 34, are buying fewer homes than their age counterparts 10 years ago. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for National Association of Realtors, blames student debt for the drop in homeownership for this age group. In 2005, student debt totaled $600 billion. Today that number has risen to $1.3 trillion.<\/p>\n

This situation has caught the attention of preservations. Jaye MacAskill, president of the board for Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), San Diego\u2019s preservation group, is also a real estate agent for Bennion & Devill Homes in Mission Hills. She doesn\u2019t hesitate when asked if she thinks prices have gone crazy in Uptown San Diego. \u201cYes,\u201d she said. Even in Rolando, in the College Area, where she sold a house a year ago for $335,000, prices are increasing rapidly. \u201cThree weeks ago a similar house sold for $479,000.\u201d For those keeping score, that\u2019s a 42 percent increase.<\/p>\n

MacAskill recommends looking further afield than Mission Hills, Kensington, North Park and South Park. She just sold an extremely well preserved Craftsman in the historic part of Escondido for $425,000. \u201cLa Mesa is still high, but look at Lemon Grove. National City is half the price of Uptown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully people will continue to see historic as cool. And people will keep bringing back all the historic neighborhoods. Barrio Logan has beautiful houses. Preserving old houses always required a pioneering spirit. In the past there were people who had vision and energy and an appreciation of old houses, and a lot of those people went on to found and support SOHO. It seems younger people are again interested in vintage homes. Maybe the tide will swing back.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for affordability in North Park, that ship may have already sailed.<\/p>\n

\u2014Comun\u00edquese con Michael Good en housecallssdun@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts say the\u00a0Uptown real estate\u00a0market is calming\u00a0down, but things\u00a0appear different By Michael Good |\u00a0HouseCalls Is it just me, or has the local real estate market gone completely crazy in the last few months? The asking price for a three-bedroom bungalow in the West End neighborhood of North Park has recently crossed the $900,000 mark. That\u2019s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":249884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Unreal estate","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}