San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

We have friends looking in that area also, and I'd also be interested to know exactly where that development is located, and if the realtors on the forum feel prices will come down in that area.

We live in RSF, and I use Camino Del Sur off and on, and notice "for sale" signs quite often. I hope the Santa Monica development is not in the same area as "The Monet Collection." That development is literally in a "ditch," with dead brush (read fire hazard) surrounding the homes. Can't imagine anyone paying over $500K for those homes. Another concern in that area is the power lines. Guess I'm just not a fan of the locations near that high school.

Will be interesting to hear the realtors feedback on this.

Second time around for these folks. Pricing may be explained by the fact that they have a first mtg for 1.2M and a second for 145k. They listed the home back in 10/07 with Prudential at 1.55M and were at 1.525M when it expired. Obviously in thier minds it was Prudentials fault it didn't sell so they relisted with Keller Williams on 4/18/08 for 1.499M to 1.52M.

This is not a case of people pricing the home to market conditions but rather a classic case of people pricing the home to thier own view of what they feel they must get out of the sale. Places like Santaluz have alot of denial still brewing in the tank.

If you perform an active/pending search in 1168 h7 and j7 which are two of the mapcodes that contain part of Santaluz you get 24 actives and 2 pendings. Not much of a ratio to shout about. Again, the denial runs deep out there. Agreed that the recent sales I looked at out there do not justify the price but let these people keep that nice mortgage payment alive... they will come around some day. It just may take awhile.

Again, keep in mind that the denial runs deep in many markets out here. Really really deep.

SD Realtor

Flyer I couldn't help but laugh at your description of Monet. Hey to each his own ya know? I don't have strong feelings about the place... it is not for me but I don't bag on it or any other places in town...

Anyways Monet is west of Santa Monica and yes it is a step or two down in quality to say the least. It is also technically in 92129 (penasquitos) while Santa Monica is 92127. Two actives I know of in Monet are at 699k and above and Santa Monica homes are generally in the 1M to start range. You cannot even compare the homes though due to the size of the homes themselves and the lots.

Also anything in the hills out there is a fire hazard. Take it or leave it.
SD Realtor

SD

Point well taken. Guess I should have prefaced my comments with IMHO--but that's the feeling I get whenever I pass that development. Having lived in RSF for a long time, I have some very strong opinions about what people are willing to pay to live in what I would consider inferior locations--it amazes me.

Since nybuyer is looking at these properties from afar, just thought he/she might want to be aware of the physical location and other possible issues, as opposed to just considering the appeal of the home itself.

Now that you've clarified Santa Monica is not in the same location as the other development, I'll be sure and pass that info onto my friends. If those prices come down, they may find it appealing.

Just to clarify...It is the Santa Monica development that has the power lines.....The Monet Collection does not.

Where exacty are the power lines? That's a deal breaker for me. Was looking at the birds eye shots of the area on Windows Live (maps.live.com) and didn't see any power lines nearby.

I do think the neighborhood looks nice - lots of large homes with green lawns and trees - not quite as "beige" as the other "luxury" subdividisions Was also surprised that many of these developments aren't gated - only a handful. Why is that? Would have thought that it improves the marketability of the properties. Is it an issue with the city and/or roads?

BobS
I bicycle around this area a lot and have noticed there is a very strong correlation between the house and lot values and the proximity to the power lines. Whether they are or are not a health/environmental hazard, what counts is the market's perception, and it is very negative.
Another factor that will hurt these values is that most of the houses were put up in the runup to the 2005/6 price peak. The builders went for square footage over lower density, and the neighborhood show it. No amount of architectural gyrations will disguise the fact that your big box is smack next to your neighbors big box, and your 3rd and 4th cars are clogging the available street parking.
The next trend will be downsizing to reasonably-sized houses, shedding some possessions, and heating and cooling a smaller abode. This trend was in evidence in the earlier 1990s correction.

And despite these homes proximity to the Santaluz course, they are not within the gates of Santaluz? What area is Santa Monica considered?

Thanks

Hi NY - You are correct, the homes in Santa Monica are not in Santa Luz proper.

I've not been in Santa Monica but am looking in Santa Luz. The power lines seem to be on the west side of the division. You can see them if you zoom in on google maps. The lines run north/south and it looks like there's a maintenance road or something below them.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge...

The Monet community is about 2 miles south east of Santa Monica, on Bryn Glen Way. Much closer to the 56. Here's a map with driving directions between the two for perspective:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&ge...

No Santa Monica is not within the gates of Santa Luz... Kind of like, close but no cigar. Many agents who post Santa Monica listings actually put Santa Luz as the community.

A quick side note...

When an agent enters a listing in the MLS, all of the listing information is simply template driven. From an engineering standpoint the gui (user interface) is pretty pathetic. Given the bucks the realtor association has you would think they would deploy some decent technology but that is another story for another day. You simply pull down values from the template for pretty much all fields. The only areas you get to actually senter long strings of text is the remarks, confidential remarks, and supplemental comments. Other fields allow for text entry like room measurements, directions, and other similar fields.

One of the template pulldowns is for "community" and Santaluz is actually a value you can select. Now there is another field called "subdivision" where you can write in the subdivision of the home. So many agents will select the Santaluz community and write in the Santa Monica subdivision. Nothing bad about that but no Santa Monica is not in the gates on the course.

What area is Santa Monica considered? mmmm... well it is in 92127 which is Rancho Bernardo... it is close to Santa Luz... so I guess it really depends on who you talk to... If you talk to someone who lives IN Santaluz they will look down and say no you are not in Santaluz...

SD Realtor

To help, both Santa Monica and Santa Luz are on Black Mountain Ranch. But only the houses to the east of Camino Del Sur are actually in Santa Luz. Once you go out there you can see what BMR did.

sooooo...if you're a realtor and want the cachet, you can say 'Santa Monica in Black Mountain Ranch'.

what's the microclimate like there? temperate or does it ever get hot? do you still get the ocean breeze?

also, anyone have any idea what the MR is for santa monica?

thanks again!

nybuyer it gets quite warm... The climate is similar to that of Cielo and the homes that are on the western face of the hills that are behind Lake Hodges. Not much sea breeze activity. Again, the sea breezes in San Siego die off pretty quickly. Sometimes you get some nice breezes up the canyons that finger off to the west but once more it is not a "coastal cool" that I am pretty sure you are referring to.

MR for Santa Monica are in the 6-7K range annually and a 230 HOA per month. Not cheap.

SD Realtor

Padre Brian, there are actually some homes west of Cam del Sur that are in Santa Luz proper, you must enter the gate at Cam del Sur, then the road actually goes back under Cam del Sur, there are homes there on streets with names of Caminito Lazanja and such that are in Santa Luz...just a clarification.

MANmom

I forgot about that lil min underpass! You're right. There are indeed a few homes in Santa Luz that are just over the other side side of the road. But all use the Santa Luz gates.

They didn't make it easy did they? heh