18 Jun San Diego real estate pace chills in May

The pace of annual home appreciation of San Diego real estate hit a slow spell last month, just as the housing market heads toward the busy summer real estate season. 

Home appreciation of San Diego real estate dropped last month to a three-year low, according to CoreLogic real estate tracker.  The median price for a home for sale in San Diego County was $459,000, up just 3.1 percent from April, according to real estate tracker CoreLogic.

It’s the slowest annual home appreciation pace since June 2012, when prices at that time rose just 1.7 percent. The market has largely rebounded since then, with fewer foreclosures and investment properties and stronger wages and employment figures.

Might this be a downward trend for homes for sale in San Diego? Experts doubt it.

Traditionally,  transactions of San Diego homes for sale peak in spring and summer, as they do in other parts of the country. But San Diego real estate experts aren’t worried by the slower pace,  and said the appreciation, while small, is sustainable. Annually, sales rose 3.5 percent for the year, to 3,825 transactions in May. Still, San Diego real estate has yet to recover from a historically low amount of inventory as credit still remains relatively inexpensive.