May 2015 San Diego Real Estate Market Update

First Quarter Results Very Promising for US Real Estate Markets

The nationwide numbers are in for the first three months of 2015, and it looks like markets all across the country saw huge gains during the first quarter of the year. Eight-five percent of major metro areas saw positive gains between January and March, with more than a quarter of them generating double-digit annualized growth rates.

According to the Chief Economic for the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, a variety of different factors went into creating the current market conditions. "Sales activity to start the year was notably higher than a year ago, as steady hiring and low interest rates encouraged more buyers to enter the market," said Yun. "However, stronger demand without increasing supply led to faster price growth in many markets."

It isn’t just home values that are going up, either. Across the United States, total home sales during the first quarter of the year grew to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million – a 6.2% increase from the 4.68 million seen at the end of March 2014.

More Growth Reveals Hot San Diego Real Estate Market

On the local level, the San Diego real estate market is continuing its upward trend in just about every commonly measured area. Not only did the average number of active listings increase by more than 5% during April, but the number of sold listings also jumped over 14% throughout the month. This isn’t the only great news for sellers – with the steadily growing demand from buyers, the average number of days that new listings are sitting on the market has decreased to 42 after beginning the year at 54.

After increasing from $500,000 to $520,000 in March, the median sales price for single-family homes in the San Diego area held steady during April, just below the recent-history peak of $525,000 witnessed in June 2014. According to data from the NAR, the San Diego area is one of the top five most expensive markets in the country – a list that’s led by San Jose with its median home price of $900,000.

Sellers aren’t the only San Diegans benefiting from the current market conditions – buyers are also enjoying the increased selection of listings and still-low cost of borrowing money. So far in May, the average mortgage rate is holding steadily at 3.86%, after raising to nearly 4.5% in 2014. It’s likely, though, that we’ll see rates back above 4% in the near-to-mid future, with many economists predicting a federal increase by the end of the year.

San Diego Real Estate Market Statistics for May 2015