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Home-Sale Market Takes a Temporary Timeout

This just in: San Diego County’s real estate market is “taking a breather,” following several record-breaking quarters this decade.

That’s the word from Russ Valone, the president of MarketPointe Realty Advisors in San Diego.

According to his fourth-quarter report, only 1,636 new homes were sold during that period in 2005, 44 percent below the third-quarter total of 2,927, and the lowest in eight years.

“A speedy comeback is highly unlikely,” said Valone. “Instead, it’s more likely we’ll see modest improvement in the first and second quarters. The era of record-setting yearly sales might be over for a while.”

A few more tidbits:

– San Diego’s University City neighborhood recorded the most new attached home sales in the county in the fourth quarter, 161.

– The average price in University City was $342,709 for 766 square feet of living space, while the size range was 601 to 1,065 square feet.

– The top attached project for the quarter, with 9.4 sales per week, and 47 total sales, was Tierra Vista at Otay Ranch, a 168-unit condo conversion; the price range was $266,900 to $400,900 for 629 to 1,258 square feet. Montecito Property Co. is the developer.

According to Valone, because of the profusion of condo conversions in San Diego, which are usually priced substantially below newly built units, the average price of attached housing dropped 8 percent to $392,153, while the third-quarter average was $427,928.

South San Diego County has the most planned activity in the attached-housing sector , 39 percent, followed by central San Diego, 25 percent; the Highway 78 corridor, 14 percent; coastal North County and East County, 7 percent; and the Interstate 15 and Highway 56 corridors, 4 percent.

– The leader in the detached-home category, with 2.5 sales a week and 10 quarterly sales, was 82-unit Sanctuary at Stonebridge Estates in Poway, priced from $1.2 million to $1.4 million, for 4,435 to 5,599 square feet on 14,000-square-foot lots. Shea Homes is the builder.

– The average price of a detached home was more than $1.1 million, almost 3 percent higher than the third quarter of 2005.

– Average prices for detached homes along I-15 , in Scripps Ranch, Poway and 4S Ranch, all range above $1 million.

– The I-15 corridor is the most expensive sub-market in which to buy a new home in San Diego County.

– – –


Up And Down:

Prices for single-family detached homes in North County were on a roller-coaster ride during 2005, according to the year-end report of the North San Diego County Association of Realtors.

– Median prices for these homes hovered around $600,000 during the first quarter of 2005, while they rose to $615,000 in May, and ranged between $615,000 and $630,000 in the peak summer months, declining to $600,000 in October. Median prices reached the year high of $645,000 in November, before ending the year at $610,000.

– North County’s median SFD prices exceeded other areas of the county from about $60,000 to $80,000 on a monthly basis.

– The December North County median SFD price was 5.2 percent higher than in December 2004.

– – –


Big Deals:

CIP Real Estate, an Irvine-based real estate investment company, in a joint venture with Guggenheim Real Estate, a national real estate investment company, have purchased a four-story, 88,295-square-foot Class A office building on Mira Mesa Boulevard, near Interstates 5 and 805. The price tag: $20.2 million.

ASR Mira Mesa LLC, an affiliate of American Spectrum Realty, Inc., sold the building, which is located on 3.66 acres, and is about 95 percent leased by such tenants as World Savings and Liberty Mutual.

McCarthy Building Cos., Inc. in San Diego recently completed construction of the curtain wall for the expansion and renovation of the $16 million biomedical library at UC San Diego.

The company also is close to topping out on the new $30 million, 110,000-square-foot student academic services facility on campus.

– – –


New Developments:

Manchester Grand Resorts has released for sale the first phase of The Villas at the $265 million Grand Del Mar, a posh residential enclave scheduled for completion in mid-2007. Phase 1, consisting of 24 units, is set among the fairways of the 7,200-yard, par-72 Grand Golf Club, “world class,” we’re told, and the only one in San Diego to be designed by the famed Tom Fazio.

Barratt American has announced plans to build 16 new semi-custom homes , the Nantucket , near La Costa Avenue in the secluded north stretches of Encinitas.

The homes, with prices starting at more than $2 million, will range in size from 3,006 to 4,907 square feet in eight floor plans, with four bedrooms and 3.5 baths, to five bedrooms and 5.5 baths.

– – –


Kudos:

Congrats to San Diego-based environmental consultant Drew George, founder of Drew George & Partners. He was on the team that built the new 53-story 111 S. Wacker building in Chicago , the first project to achieve a Core & Shell Gold rating in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification program administered by the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council.

Its mission is to promote the design and construction of buildings that are “environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.”

San Diego homebuilder Bill Davidson is one famous fellow. Recently, he was inducted into the Building Industry Association of San Diego’s Hall of Fame, some six years after being named to the California Building Industry Association Hall of Fame.

A 27-year veteran of the industry, Davidson also was named the California Builder of the Year in 1992, among other accolades.

His company, the Del Mar-based Davidson, has built more than 5,000 homes statewide.

Border Construction Specialties, based in Phoenix, whose credits include SeaWorld San Diego and the Coronado Shores residential developments, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in business.


Send residential and commercial real estate news to pbroderick@sdbj.com or via fax at (858) 571-3628.

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