21 Feb Home appreciation up, but San Diego real estate sales fall in January

Real estate in San Diego is off to a mixed start in 2015.

Home appreciation increased in January, but the amount of homes for sale in San Diego fell last month.

The median price for homes for sale in San Diego was $435,000 last month, up 7.4 percent from January 2014 figures, according to real estate tracking firm CoreLogic DataQuick. Home appreciation has been on an uptick for the past few months — up 4.8 percent in December 2014 and 3.6 percent in November 2014.

A slow January for San Diego real estate?

Experts remain confident about real estate in San Diego, but warned January is historically a slow month. Recent sales seem to bear this point out: The amount of January transactions were down 32 percent when compared to the 3,290 real estate transactions recorded in December 2014.

San Diego real estate experts have warned double-digit appreciation rates of 24.1 percent during the summer of 2013 when foreclosure resales and investors dominated the market were unsustainable long term; annual appreciation rates between 4 percent to 6 percent are predicted going forward with real estate in San Diego closely tied to traditional factors such as income, population growth and job growth.

And when compared to December 2014, home appreciation fell from $440,000 to $435,000 last month.  January 2015 also saw 2,233 real estate transactions — the fewest recorded transactions recorded since March 2008, when the area was in the grips of one of the worst housing recession in U.S. history. Last month, there were 74 new homes sold in San Diego County — a record low.

There were 6,129 active listings in the county last month, according to the San Diego Association of Realtors. That’s less than three months’ inventory. Falling interest rates may help bump those numbers up eventually, as rates fell from 4.47 percent in January 2014 to an average of 3.67 percent  last month.