Crazy in Coronado

[lostkitty]

I’ve been tracking inventory in Coronado since the first week of January. It has risen 100%, from 103 to 206 in exactly six months time.

I’ve also been watching some other towns we might have considered moving to (before finding Piggington and deciding to stay put in NY).

Their inventory increses in just six months are:

Solana Beach 30%
Del Mar 73%
Carmel Valley 70%
Rancho Santa Fe 22%
Cardiff 45%

Before we moved away, I remember many homes in Coronado suddenly getting bought up as second homes by families from Phoenix. I also remember many friends stretching WAY beyond their means to buy homes “before it was too late”. Most of these friends were pilots for major airline carriers, and we all know what happened to their incomes. I think there may be some good buys in Coronado next year (if you dont mind the increasingly stinky flotsam from the Tijuana River coming up the beach).

PD – What are your local observations?

[powayseller]

I’m wondering about any effect of the Tijuana sewage flowing into the SD water/beaches, and the trash on the beaches. Is this causing a problem in Coronado and our other southern beaches, and home prices? I know this hasn’t been in the media, so I only know about it from word of mouth.

[lostkitty]

“Thanks for sharing that and participating in this forum. I invite you to consider my point of view…”

I’m guessing it wont effect home prices until it gets worse. Since the amount of stink has been incresing just over the past decade or two – it will be awhile before people start to really notice the change or get angry.

I dont think it will play a part in this RE cycle – but I could be wrong. I guess it depends on awareness/media coverage. So far, the testing shows the beaches as mostly clean – only a few closures in Coronado for filth annually(lots in Imperial Beach though). As the days closed increases, then we’ll see some interest in the problem.

[PD]

I have only noticed the smell once or twice and I live right on the water. There is some garbage on the beach but I would not say it is bad.
As for houses for sale, I drove around a little bit yesterday and saw a lot of signs. However, most of the houses in the low end are priced about $200,000 more than last year. I went into a tiny 2/1 with a small patio yard and 1 car garage that was priced at 1.2M. It would have been priced at about $800,000 – $900,000 last year. I see a lot of houses that are priced way above comps. People are reaching for the moon. I have even seen some houses and lots that are priced DOUBLE what they should be priced.

[CardiffBaseball]

lostkitty I started the tracking game a bit late, and am tracking Cardiff. The reason I track this market is that I don’t want to have to move the kids again after having moved them across the country.

If you could share your Cardiff numbers with me that’d be great. What I may do is wait another 4 years and once they are in Jr. High and HS I can stretch to Encinitas.

[Anonymous]

Riding our bikes down the strand this weekend, the stench was pretty bad, especially as we got closer to IB. We ride there frequently, through IB down to the border and back. It stinks a lot and it stinks often.

[powayseller]

So the stench is in IB, but not Coronado?

Has this affected IB property prices? Or would you say it’s still a largely unknown problem. Someone shopping for a home in IB might not even know about this, until they take their first beach outing.

[lindismith]

The stench is in IB, Coronado, Chula Vista, National City etc. The people who live in these areas know about this problem all too well. Whether or not they are prepared to force the city to do something about it is another issue.

I am a member of Surfrider, SD Chapter, and the sewage from TJ is a major concern for us.

Beaches were closed too many days in South County last year after the rains.

By the way, no one should ever swim in ANY of our beaches 3 days after it has rained more than 1/5 – 1/2 an inch. And there are some who say, wait 5 days.

If anyone has any questions for Surfrider they would like answered about this, please feel free to email me directly at lindismith@hotmail(dot)com.

Ultimately, the sewage problem, if left untreated, is going to pose a huge problem to real estate values in Coronado, because the beaches are a big part of Coronado’s beauty. But filthy beaches, with water that makes swimmers sick, is not good for residents or tourists. Bajagua is the project planned to treat a large portion of the problem, but it will not solve all of it. At least it is a start.

[powayseller]

The media has kept the beach problems from the front pages. I did a google search on this, and found only one article. San Diego cannot afford to make a big deal of this, because it would hurt tourism, one of our main industries. As a resident, I know of occasional beach closures, and to avoid the beach after rain, but had not heard of the stench. How many potential buyers would know about this?

PD, you live in Coronado. Do you think this problem is affecting your desire to live there? What does the community think about it?

[lostkitty]

Cardiffbaseball-

Sorry it took me so long… was on a quick trip to Boston. Now there are some great little beach towns!!!

Anyway, on 1/4 there were 56 properties for sale. Cheapest of them all was 374,000.
Cheapest 3br (sfr OR condo) was 435,000, cheapest 4br was 580,000.

Where did you move them across the country from?

LKit

[CardiffBaseball]

Lkit, I came from 50 miles Southeast of Cleveland, Warren Ohio. Bought a house for 132K, in 99, re-fi’d once to pay for some flood damage, sold for 150K in Nov. 2005. Of course I lost money because I had to put in a new Septic, and pay 7%, so I had to bring 12000 to close to make sure Septic was installed. I eventually got about 3K back.

Left 3 acres, 2400 SQ. Feet, plus another 1200 Sq. Feet basement, pool basketball court, etc. Now I have about 1030, so with 2 kids we use the garage since the driveway is plenty big.

About to do another one year lease here in Cardiff, and the landlord is not raising rent, since we are good tenants.

[lostkitty]

My goodness… I started this thread just over a week ago, and the inventory has risen to 224 on realtor.com as of today (was 206 a week ago). Ziprealty shows it even higher.

Coronado is such a tiny place. Must look positively festive with so many colorful signs in the yards!

[PD]

There are three houses for sale on my small street. Two of the houses have been for sale for over a year and one house just came up for sale that sold only a year ago. It was purchased as a vacation home and the guy bought a lot of expensive water toys. I wonder why he is selling?

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