The 92067 zip area is all referred to as Rancho Santa Fe; but the areas that are included in the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant are where all the old money is. That’s the area that has its own CC&Rs and it’s own security guard service and has the design review board that controls what the homes look like in the area. These controls result in a community that is more uniform in design and quality and appeal than the outlying areas. The Covenant area is where its at.
The other areas in the 92067 zip are more hit and miss; and the areas adjacent to 92067, like Fairbanks Ranch and Del Mar Country Club are largely considered to be where the new money goes. In the last downturn the RSF Covenant areas barely got touched but all the outlying areas got hammered. I don’t know what’s going to happen this time but I do know there are a lot more pretenders to the RSF Covenant throne out there now than there were 15 years ago.
Some of the spec homes in Carmel Valley are already trying to discount but the sales still arent forthcoming. If you drive through some of these areas you’d think it was a land rush with all the building going on, but many of those homes are not selling. Those few buyers who have the cash are buying what they want, but there aren’t enough of them to absorb the inventory that’s already online and is coming online in the next 12 months.
Coastal properties haven’t been seeing any discounts but they’re also not seeing any sales, either. Encinitas has had no closed sales along Neptune or their other seafront streets in the last 9 months, although there’s one pending right now overlooking Moonlight Beach. There are currently 8 or 9 listings. Solana Beach has had a couple but there are more listings than sales in the last year, which means they have a 1+ year supply of inventory. Oceanside has slowed way down, as has Del Mar and even La Jolla. These last two still have sales but it’s because they have so many more properties on the coast. They’re not selling as many now as they were last year.
More disconcerting is that all of these areas have new construction underway, and half of those are being built by spec builders. At the current rate of sales these homes will either take years to sell or they will be heavily discounted. Something’s gotta give.
