A San Diego Real Estate Market Report–
June 10th, 2008 Categories: Coronado, Del Mar, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe
–from San Diego’s premier luxury real estate broker, who also spends a lot of time in the trenches:
Bob Dyson, Broker-Owner of Villa Sotheby’s International Realty in San Diego and Dyson & Dyson Sotheby’s International Realty in the desert. Bob speaks with the voice of experience, and has never been one to mince words.
And Dyson’s most recent column, sent via email this morning, is no exception.
Insight from a Real Estate Insider
CURRENT REAL ESTATE MARKET CONDITIONS
by Bob Dyson
I have been asked again to render an opinion on current real estate market conditions as a lot has changed since our last forecast dated March 27th, 2008.
Over the past few months I have been in most of our Southern California offices on a weekly basis working with individual groups of agents, discussing the market from their perspective and experimenting with new and innovative ways to define and approach this “moving target market”.
In addition, I personally have been “in the trench” in the development business in San Diego and Riverside Counties and the San Diego real estate sales and listing market working directly with Sellers and Buyers and gathering my own opinion of the market. Read the rest of this entry »
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San Diego Nude Beaches Threatened
June 6th, 2008 Categories: La Jolla, Real Estate News, San Diego Beaches
I’ve never really given much thought to San Diego County’s two nude beaches: Black’s Beach in La Jolla and San Onofre State Beach at the northern tip of San Diego County. Both are pretty secluded and it appears the nudists are a pretty peaceable lot.
At least until recently.
It is reported in this morning’s San Diego Union Tribune that San Onofre park rangers will start enforcing a ban on nudity after September, 1, 2008. Apparently, there have been public complaints and some park employees objected to working in a place where not everyone is clothed–which specifically targets the Trail 6 beach area.
And like other beach workers who object to picking up cigarette butts, used baby diapers and other foul debris, maintenance workers at San Onofre State Beach object to occasionally having to pick up sex toys, condoms and other “paraphernalia.” Guess it’s a long trek to carry those bags of debris up a remote and steep path that goes up a 60-foot cliff.
Can’t blame either group of park employees for their complaints–and would personally campaign for users of all San Diego beaches to never leave any debris behind.
On the other side of this issue, nudists are proclaiming that their nudity is protected under First Amendment rights as “free speech” and the Naturist Society has issued an action alert, encouraging its members to email and send letters to politicians protesting the nudity ban.
It’s tempting to take my camera and authenticate this blog article with photos, but I’ll pass on the assignment because I’m just not dressed for the terrain.
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Hacked and Attacked: Why?
April 18th, 2008 Categories: La Jolla, Real Estate News, San Diego Real Estate
My deepest apologies to those who tried to access this San Diego real estate blog earlier in the week.
We are just now starting to recover from an attack that has left me stunned.
We were viciously attacked late Sunday night by unknown entities, who tried to destroy everything ever written on both San Diego Previews and Luxury Home Digest. It appears about 18 other real estate blogs throughout the country suffered the same fate. Thanks to the collective genius and caffein-fed 40-hour work stretches, the real estate blogging gurus at the Real Estate Tomato were able to revive us all back to some semblance of normality.
Glitches still remain: I still can’t load new photos into this Word Press blog and comments from readers have wrong dates. Those issues will be more easily resolved than my own nagging questions:
Why would someone or some group or anyone want to wreak such senseless damage on others? We have no account numbers or other sensitive information on these real estate blogs that could be of value to anyone; this is a case of wanton and heartless destruction.
I also can’t help but wonder why a home burglary would somehow be more comforting than this attack.
The answer might be that I can defend myself against a home burglary: I can install alarms, locking gates and buy a Pit Bull or two. I can also call the police, file an insurance claim–or move across town. That is a problem with obvious solutions.
How does one protect against online invasions? We install firewalls, we keep our virus protections up to date and stay away from suspicious sites. But what about other online vulnerabilities, or the evil intent of hackers?
I have spoken with some who were affected by this week’s attack. Clients were lost and some went elsewhere to search for properties. We received calls about the site being down–from some surely wondering if we were still in the San Diego real estate business.
This was an attack not only on real estate blog sites, but also on reputations, livelihoods and peace of mind.
Update: I can now load photos onto this limping San Diego real estate blog, but have discovered that all the back end stuff was also deleted and/or destroyed. In between the tedious hours spent helping to rebuild this site, I try to imagine fitting punishments for the hacker(s)–like banning them from computers for the next 50 years, or strapping a keyboard to their foreheads life or forcing them to hit the delete button on every piece of work they have ever created.
Grrrr!
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San Diego a Bargain for Foreign Investors
March 17th, 2008 Categories: Carlsbad, Del Mar, Encinitas, La Jolla, Luxury Homes, San Diego Real Estate
How I wish I were buying San Diego real estate with Euros or Loonies or Yen or Yuan. As a European, Canadian, Japanese or Chinese real estate investor, I could be plucking off prime coastal real estate in San Diego County at an amazingly steep discount.
For this mornings rant , we can thank Mr Bernankes surprise quarter point cut in the Fed rate Sunday, which has helped to trigger a further decline in the dollar versus other foreign currencies. The US dollar against the Euro currently stands at around $1.58, which can be a dream or a nightmare, depending upon the denomination of ones bank account.
This decline comes as many are expecting an even steeper cut by the Fed this week.
Some American expatriates we know are selling off foreign investments and returning home. The declining dollar has made European retirement increasingly more expensive, and $4.00 per gallon gasoline is still more attractive than $8 per gallon. Its all a matter of relativity. And San Diego County has become a natural home target for many of those returnees.
And why not?
Blue chip real estate in downtown San Diego, Coronado, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, La Costa, Aviara, Carlsbad and even Oceansides blossoming downtown area can now be purchased by foreigners and expats at even steeper discounts, thanks to the decimated dollar and an already discounted real estate market.
Its a rare combination astute foreign investors cannot ignore and for those seeking to buy a slice of paradise, there is little that can compete with coastal San Diego.
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San Diego Incomes: A Few Surprises
March 1st, 2008 Categories: Carlsbad, Del Mar, Encinitas, La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, San Marcos
As a San Diego Realtor, I am frequently asked about income demographics in San Diego County and find it handy to have a chart for reference.
The one below provides more than a few surprises, courtesy of the San Diego Business Journal, which provided this data last summer and is one of my favorite reads. We found it surprising, for example, that Carlsbad outranks Encinitas and that Poway beat out Coronado.
And would you have guessed that Oceanside would best San Diego? And few should be surprised that tiny Del Mar beat out them all.
Of course, Rancho Santa Fe and La Jolla were not included, as Rancho Santa Fe is not an incorporated city, and La Jolla is part of the City of San Diego.
| Cities Of Interest: | 2007 Population: | Median Household Income : |
| San Diego | 1,326,837 | $61,043 |
| Chula Vista | 227,723 | 68,497 |
| Oceanside | 176,644 | 62,271 |
| Escondido | 141,788 | 60,639 |
| Carlsbad | 101,337 | 90,115 |
| El Cajon | 97,255 | 50,433 |
| Vista | 94,962 | 60,757 |
| San Marcos | 79,812 | 68,109 |
| Encinitas | 63,259 | 86,444 |
| National City | 61,115 | 41,959 |
| La Mesa | 56,250 | 55,667 |
| Santee | 56,158 | 74,321 |
| Poway | 50,830 | 93,542 |
| Imperial Beach | 27,709 | 43,355 |
| Lemon Grove | 25,451 | 57,000 |
| Coronado | 22,957 | 91,748 |
| Solana Beach | 13,418 | 102,810 |
| Del Mar | 4,548 | 108,635 |
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