[quote=sdrealtor]CAR
Hate to say it but your response is a pretty stunning reversal from your prior position that this area was always well known and nothing much has changed here. The 150% increase in median income since 1988 is pretty strong evidence that this area has changed quite a bit. I wonder how much the SD County median HH income changed over that time?
update: I found a 1990 median income number of $39,800 for SD County and a 2008 median income of about $64,800. Thats a 62% increase over roughly the same period and nowhere near the 150% increase for 92024. I’d say that is a pretty remarkable demographic shift.[/quote]
I didn’t say that things didn’t change in micro-markets, just that the beach has always been here, and the weather has always been similar, etc. I’ve usually mentioned this in response to SD County as a whole, but it also applies to the sub-markets. These are the reasons given by everyone who claims that it should be expensive here because of the beach.
Do infrastructure and demographic shifts affect prices? Absolutely! I’m just saying that things didn’t suddenly change in 2001 (most of the improvements I mentioned were here by then). It’s not like Encinitas/South Carlsbad suddenly became immune to what was going on in all the other markets across the country and around the world.
It was a **credit bubble** that pushed prices up, in the aggregate, in the 2001-2007 period. Different areas turn at different times, and some areas will lose value for other reasons while other areas gain value for other reasons. I’m fully convinced that if not for all the stimulus, foreclosure moratoriums/foreclosure avoidance programs, accounting changes, artificially suppressed interest rates, etc. this area would be down at least 25% from where it currently is.
