Welcome to Spring

Today is the first day of Spring 2012, the "Vernal Equinox", when the sunrise and sunset share the light of day and the dark of night with equal favor. From here on out though, the days get longer (actually these days, they have all seemed long) and we all get to bask in some long overdue sunshine. With this new transition, we all look forward to things to come, Summer, BBQ's, baseball, the beach, the 5:30 a.m. start at your home course and even a few nice South swells.

Another thing that many of us have long anticipated is the return of some stability in the housing market. That time when we had an idea of what is going to happen
with reasonable certainty. Remember those days? It was not that long ago when
things were easy to determine where they were headed. Right or wrong, you just
knew that your home was going to double in value next year and you would have
that nice little five-bedroom "Beach Cottage" front row at T-Street.

All you had to do was sign that listing agreement, stick the sign in the ground and
make sure the new beach chair and sunscreen were ready to go. It was that
easy... Almost... While these T-Street Treasures are still there today, things have changed. They can be had for well below a peak 2007 list price of $5,250,000 for a single-family lot and home on Paseo De Cristobal.

In fact, Spring usually brings such "bargains", if you can consider a $3.3 million dollar oceanfront enclave a bargain. Maybe you can, at over 6,000 square feet, six bedrooms and seven baths, with that view, it is a steal compared to some of the other comparably appointed estates just a dozen or so miles to our North.

To know where we stand now as we head into Spring and Summer, all we have to do is look at some Spring trends of the past decade. Starting back in 2002, ending the period from January 1st to March 20th, San Clemente stood at 187 homes sold for an average sales price of $490K. They sold in a combined average of just 79 days on the market. 2003 saw the jump to $562K on 203 homes sold and averaged only 77 days on market. Spring of 2004 saw a very dramatic jump to an average of $712K. For 2005, try $775K average, nice huh..? T-Street here we come! By the Vernal Equinox of 2006, we hit $975K, but could it keep going? Next stop, the Cotton Estate at our southern border? Could it be?

Well, Spring 2007 we cracked the million-dollar average, $1,004,040. Wow... Start packing, right?  Not so quickly. 2008 gave us $894K, 2009 a plunge to $669K. Was 2010 the year of the recovery? After all the Spring average put us at $711K. Not at all, 2011 saw us back in the high $600K range and now, how about this Spring? We just closed 149 homes for an average of $637K and it is taking nearly 130 days on market for a home to sell, on average. The graphs show it, the run up, the peak, the fall. All the way back down to where we are today. Is there more to give?  Yeah, probably a bit. How much though is a thing of great speculation and wild theory, even this one here.  I do know that if you are still thinking about dusting off that beach umbrella, do it now and get out there looking, because one thing is certain, June will be here soon.                                                                                       

For more insights and market data, check us out at http://occoastalretimes.blogspot.com