San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Nost: Very tasteful interior, and very nice location. $619k, though? Little on the pricey side. There was another Bay Park home on the site that was clocking in at $519/sf. Is the neighborhood really that nice?

Fallbrook,

We went through this house about 3 months ago or longer. Back then they were asking for something like $725K. We met the owners (at least that is what they said they were) and they had just got married and were selling one of the two houses they had (this being the one). Hard to say if they were for real or just a good story to throw off the smell of "flipping".

Overall, it seemed to be a nice place - cool looking marble in the kitchen - very unique if I remember correctly. Small bedrooms, small backyard backing up to a storm drain - not a benefit I would want. The neighborhood is ok, a bit old and hit or miss from one house to the next. I would say that it would be a good up and coming neighborhood if it was 2003 - now, I'm not so sure - it will take some time for this to come back up. Way too expensive at $725K. $619K is pushing it. My trigger price for this particular house would be more along the lines of $540-565K - not that I'm a big real estate-ophile.

Just my 2 cents
BRINK

I work in this area and consider it to be THE most central San Diego community. The lot is small, however, and the listing does not mention that if you have kids, they have to go to Clairemont High School (yuck). Plus, no view of Mission Bay. Those factors are making the price relatively reasonable. I want to live in Bay Park, too, but I think prices will be better next year. One could prolly add a second story to this one to enhance the view.

I like Bay Park too, but like BRINK said the neighborhood can be a bit run down. Pictures like the ones of this house look great but then when I drive over there I get the same feel as driving through a run-down part of Clairemont. I think much of Bay Park is identical to Clairemont, but with an ocean view and high priced RE.

Thanks for the feedback, I was hoping one of you had toured it and BRINK did!

I grew up in Bay Park and I'm currently renting in the area in anticipation of buying again in a few years. Personally, I would stay away from that area. As mentioned, its a little hit and miss with regards to the houses being run down, plus the location is in Tecolote Canyon, so there are no views. The problem that I've found with anything in the lower elevations of Bay Park is that the houses can range from giant, newly rebuilt homes, to 70+ year old shacks.

I currently rent up the hill just north and east of the church (St. Mary Magdalene) and it is, and has always been a nice quiet neighborhood. Plus, in the right locations, there are spectacular views that range from Soledad to downtown. Obviously there are different strokes for different folks, but for me Bay Park has a very relaxing, nostalgic feel, plus my wife and I have family here in the houses we both grew up in.

After selling our home in Summer 2006, We've been watching the BP market, and in the past few months, it has come to a screeching hault in sales. This is obviously a good sign for us, however, most sellers are priced WAY too high and not budging. Luckily my wife and I are prepared to be patient as we've found a great rental with a wonderful landlord.

Its really difficult to even begin to justify purchasing a house for anything north of $300-400k in a neighborhood where the majority of the homes are occupied by the original owners or were purchased in the 80's and 90's for prices ranging from $150k - $250k. Below is a great example of a poor bastard that has either had a job change or just realized that they paid WAY too much for their house:

http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-076094399-49...

My favorite line, "Owner is motivated and has to sell! Make any offer!"

They purchased for $790k in late 2005 and are selling for $775k. Plus it is in a canyon, so no views and the road that it is on is fairly busy.

"Would anyone be interested in bombing them with lowball offers? If so please email me at spammers_must_die [at] live [dot] com"

Is it just me, or is there something rather ironic about this?

Lyra

Hi Drew,

Yes it does seem BP owners are very sticky with their high prices. Thanks for the good info. I think what you're doing is what I should do: rent for a while to get a feel for the neighborhood then buy if/when the price is right.

Can you recommend some nice BP streets to look at?

Thanks!

Here are a few streets that I like due to the fact that they are up on the hill (good view potential) and far enough away from the 5 and 8 fwys to not have much car noise:

Illion St. (section North of St. Mary Magdalene)
Harford St. (South of Milton St.)

Streets that branch off of Milton St.:

Tokalon St.
Garfield Rd.
Cecelia Terrace
Dunhaven St.
Penrose St.
Southcrest Ave.
Fairfield St.
February St.
March St.
August St.
September St.

That whole plateau is pretty nice and quiet. The reason I mention that the above streets branch off of Milton is because they continue North of the canyon where they end (North of Western Hills Park) and are not as ideal -- nothing bad, just not as good as the streets that branch off Milton.

Cool. Appreciated!

They've dropped the price another $39k to $580k. They bought it for $585k in 2005 and claim to have done a complete overhaul.

linky

I don't know if it was before, but they are calling it a short sale now as well.

At 527/square foot it is still pretty pricey based on the other houses listed for sale within a mile of it that are all under 500/sqft - one under 400. That doesn't account for upgrades, view, etc, but it does make it look overpriced at the first casual glance.

It's in default now but they're still asking $580k.

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/rfs/5...

I have a friend that lives not too far from there. The area is a little seedy. Mobile home storage place not too far down the street. I think it's priced high, even at 580. I remember seeing this one on the market way back when and I laughed. Seeing it defaulting is not surprising. There is another one for sale on that street for 570k that I wouldn't be surprised to see reduced significantly at the end of the year. Whatever this sells for, it will bring down the comps and all the others at year's end will be much lower. Says orig. loan amount is 468k.
Judging from the chart above, I'll wait. Hopefully soon it will be more realistic. 300k, my magic number for this neighborhood. Fixing up doesn't matter to me, not to justify these prices.

Should be a good bellwether for that hood.

There's another one three doors down (hey that's one of my favorite bands!) that's asking $735k. It's much nicer but I'd like to see the price come down.

link

nostradamus - your previous link in Jan goes to sdlookup and it says "sale pending." Why now defaulting? BOM? Now "Not active."

Whoa that's weird. SDR once told me that foreclosures show up as a sale, maybe that's happening.

The link was there not 10 minutes ago... Sumpin's up!

The area IS a little seedy. I play tennis at San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club right next to it and this is definitely not a place I would live. $580k is too expensive. Too bad that house isn't in proper Bay Park at a lower price. :(

Nostra I need clarification, not sure what post you are referring to.

What does happen regularly is we get posts here or someone emails me where someone saw something on Zillow, Trulia or SDLookup or an equivalent and they thought it was a sale or one of these sites said that there was a sale. Then when I look in the tax roll, it was simply the trustee sale, not a sale to a private party.

SD Realtor

ps 5171 Gardena went pending today. It is subject to short sale approval but the fact that is in pending status means they did get approval from the lender. When it closes we will see what they got.

Hi SDR, thanks for the info. I guess it was trustee sales you were talking about (or maybe it was someone else). My memory is vague and I still have a hangover from last Friday. If crazy Africans ever offer you the evil drink Alomo Bitters I suggest running the other way!!! It goes down smooth as a cactus (or an angry wasp) and knocks you on your arse. Wild Turkey is water compared to this.

There's a hilarious conversation about alomo bitters here (it's in Asante-English but you can understand with a little effort): blog