Usually around tax day, the real estate market goes into a bit of a funk, and this year it was compounded by the disconnect between our MLS and Zillow – any new listings have to be manually inputted to Zillow, which isn’t obvious to most agents.
In spite of all that, there have been some remarkable new pendings in the last week. A few examples:
1. The neighbor down the street had a smaller lot and no guest apartment but had a more wide open view looking south – yet they struggled for 124 days before finding a buyer who paid $1,349,000 (closed on April 2nd). Then this house lists for $1,599,000 and goes pending the first week:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/2313-mica,-carlsbad_rb/
2. Granted, this is across the street from what is probably the nicest house in Carlsbad, but $1,980,000 is a boatload for the neighborhood. Yet this only took 13 days to find a buyer:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Carlsbad/3665-Maria-Ln-92008/home/3425217
3. This house has been listed since September, with no price changes this year – the sellers just hung on and waited, and they went pending this week:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Carlsbad/7671-Sitio-Manana-92009/home/7486694
4. This is a teardown on a 9,771 sf lot with some ocean view in Leucadia listed for $1,299,000. You could buy a brand new house down the street for the same money (or less), yet it only took 26 days for this to go pending:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/380-Hillcrest-Encinitas-CA-92024_rb/
5. The seller of this house paid $1,575,000 two years ago, which was $80,000 over the list price then. Two weeks ago, they listed it on the range $1,629,000 – $1,699,000, and received eight offers at or above the high end of the range. My clients offered $1,760,000 cash and lost – rumor has it that the sales price is around $1,800,000:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/1309-Caudor-St-Encinitas-CA-92024_rb/
6. They couldn’t find a taker during the first two months of this year, so they went off the market for 30 days and came back on at the same price, $1,399,000. Boom, went pending the first week:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/1041-Saint-Albans,-Encinitas_rb/
7. This has the big ocean view in Cardiff, but it also has a vacant lot in between which provides some uncertainty. But it only took a week for this to find a buyer, listed for $2,915,000:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/1464-summit,-cardiff,-ca-92007_rb/
8. In Del Mar, Solana Beach, RSF, and La Jolla there were 17 new pendings, and almost all were lower-enders. The auction happened on Friday night and I didn’t see any last-minute advertising like there was on the other auctions. But it’s pending too:
Casa de Los Morros — from Concierge Auctions
Not only does there seem to be no drop-off in demand, but buyers are willing to pay whatever it takes to get the creampuffs – and most are above previous-peak pricing.
With the end of school/summertime within sight, expect the next four weeks to be very active before the graduation season commences.
Last year it seemed that January to April was selling season and by Memorial Day, aggressive buyers were essentially done. Did you see it that way, and if so, you think it will go that way again? Perhaps last year there was no scare of rates heading up, where people may think this is truly the last bite of ultra-cheap rates for a long while… which would keep the party going through to the fall (see, eg, your link to crazy credit union lending making a comeback)
I think the ultra-low inventory has caused the buyers to be tentative, in hopes that if they wait longer, more decent buys will come to market.
But those hopes have been dashed, for the most part. So the scramble is on to buy something of quality at whatever price it takes.
The eight offers on Caudor was mind-blowing – I make a cash offer that was $61,000 over the top of their range and lose?
Maybe your DMH folks want to re-list. That seems to be the seller lottery ticket nowadays. Plays into the ‘hopes dashed’ and second bite at the apple mentality. “Oh, its back on the market, lets not screw it up this time, we should just pay what they want and get the house…. in 20 years, it won’t matter what we paid today”
It’s treacherous in there now.
As anticipated, my old listing was looking like a deal a month ago. Then this fell out when they had a bunch of interest during the first few days, but picked the wrong buyer who held them up for 19 days before cancelling – now they are high and dry:
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-150009179-14283_Half_Moon_Bay_Dr_Del_Mar_CA_92014
These two listings sent DMH expectations down a notch too after they listed in the $1.3’s:
$1,375,000:
http://www.zillow.com/homes/13883-Recuerdo,-del-mar_rb/
$1,395,000:
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-150019714-13606_Mira_Montana_Dr_Del_Mar_CA_92014
DMH is one of the more difficult areas to figure out; it has a little bit of everything in a small area.
Maybe if I give my house a Title is will be worth a lot more,
Casa de la avocado
or something like that.