San Diego Housing Market News and Analysis

The median price per square foot for San Diego homes rose for the second time in a row in March.  This price measure was up .3% for detached homes, 4.8% for attached homes, and 1.6% in aggregate.  The detached home series is the most reliable of the three, so any actual price increases were probably muted -- nonetheless, prices look to have increased for a second month in a row.


Interestingly, the plain vanilla median price surged quite dramatically, by 7.7% in aggregate.  Combining the above graph with the below, you could say that the typical buyer spent a lot more than the prior month, but also got more square footage out of it, such that the price per square foot increased much more mildly.


The Case-Shiller proxy only looks at single family homes (as does the real CS index), so given the big decline in January it decreased a tiny little bit for the month.


Below are two gridded and calendar-year-aligned charts of the median price per square foot and the CS proxy to make seasonal patterns more obvious.




Sales volume continued to look pretty similar to the past couple of years:



Inventory increased mildly:


But months of inventory dropped, thanks to that big increase in pending sales.  That's a typical March thing, but still, months of inventory has gotten back down towards a level that is more conducive to rising prices.


Despite the fairly ugly home price decline in recent months, San Diego housing is showing some signs of life for now.