Low Income Housing Coming Soon to San Diego

The groundbreaking for a 77 unit affordable housing complex named Mesa Commons Apartments in the College neighborhood is close at hand. The development will cost $25.1 million and will sit on 4 acres.

The community will be for families that are between 30% and 60% of the median income, which is between $24,200 to $48,360 for a household of four. The housing complex will be located on El Cajon Boulevard near Choctaw Drive

The project developer, Palm Communities based in Irvine, stated the apartments will offer sustainable features including energy efficient appliances and within walking distance of a public park.

Mesa Commons Apartments is scheduled to open May 2015, according to Palm Communities’ website.

Other features residents can enjoy include picnic areas, tot lots, computer room, and fitness center.

The funding for the project has not been finalized at this time.

Negotiations for how to bring more housing to low income families in San Diego County is ongoing since the state axed redevelopment agencies that funded the affordable housing projects across the state. The elimination of these agencies was a way for the state to address the state’s deficit.

StoneRidge Club in Poway to be Sold

The StoneRidge County Club in Poway has been foreclosed upon and will be placed up for auction on April 17.

Recently a legal notice was published that stated the property is being sold for the sole purpose to pay off obligations secured by the Deed of Trust and that the entire amount of the unpaid principal balance, interest, together with costs, expenses and advances is $6.4 million.

The property will be sold to the highest bidder and will remain open until such time.

Penny Riley, Poway City Manager, stated that the individual that purchases the country club would not be able to develop the property under current zoning laws. The property will have to remain a country club and golf course.

The country club has been having financial issues for the last few years being hit by rising water costs along with the turndown in the economy that has been terrible on golf courses across the nation.

The La Jolla Development Group LLC of San Marcos has owned the country club since 2007, however, the business phones at this time have been disconnected and the office buildings are locked and vacant.

At one time, the same company owned the Lake San Marcos Resort and County Club and the Escondido Country Club, however, bankruptcy filings occurs and both properties have been sold.

The new owners of the Escondido Country Club would like to close the country and develop the land for houses.

The private StoneRidge Country Club, in northern Poway off Espola Road, includes a Ted Robinson designed 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, a 25-meter swimming pool, wading pool and Jacuzzi.

Viejas Hotel at Viejas Resort & Casino Grand Opening

The Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening for Viejas Hotel at Viejas Casino & Resort, which will be San Diego County’s newest luxury hotel on March 21, at 6pm. All are invited including the public to this event that will also provide a glimpse of the world premiere of Rise, which is a dramatic Cirque-style performance that will be followed by pyrotechnics. After all the performances, the public tours will begin of the various levels of suites that will be available at the resort.

The location of the Viejas Hotel at Viejas Casino & Resort is 5000 Willows Rd., Alpine, CA 91901 around 30 miles east of San Diego, I-8 at Willows Rd.

The Viejas Hotel at Viejas Casino & Resort boasts five stories, which cost $36 million Viejas Hotel to complete.

The event will also include traditional Kumeyaay Bird Songs, a Native American Blessing Ceremony. There will be a poolside reception for all attending.

The Viejas Hotel at Viejas Casino & Resort features 128 rooms including 99 deluxe rooms and 29 luxurious suites, an expansive patio area, hot tub, pool, business center, cabanas, fitness room, and limited room service.

If you are looking for commercial property or your new dream home in the San Diego area, now is the time to purchase while home prices and interest rates are still low. Contact a real estate agent today at 888-865-5055.

To Buy or Not To Buy?

Most Americans considering owning their own home as part of the American dream, however, with so much in uproars today from the economy to ObamaCare, no one knows what tomorrow may hold, so many are still waiting or rethinking that part of the dream. Rental properties are still on the rise in areas all across San Diego so more people are leasing homes instead of buying.

A few years ago, home ownership was in fact a positive impact on finances and renting was like throwing your money away.

The truth is that you have to look at the disadvantages and advantages of renting versus buying to find the right conclusion. Purchasing a home creates a way to build equity and provides stability while renting allows more mobility. The gap between purchasing and renting costs is very close in some areas of the nation, which make both options equally affordable.

In the majority of cases, whether you buy or rent will be dependent on your personal circumstances. You may want to look at what both actions will have on your credit score.

While you look at the advantages and disadvantages or buying or renting, these facts should be considered.

According to the United States Census Bureau, rental vacancies are falling while the cost to rent has risen.

Home prices are beginning to increase in San Diego.

According to a study by Experian in 2011, 25% of Americans are paying their mortgages late by 60 days or more.

When you look at the overall debt of owning a home, you may not be in the position to purchase a home. On the other hand, if you are paying the same amount in rent as you would to purchase a home and you are paying your rent on time, and then you may be in the position to purchase a new home. Remember, though, when you purchase a home, there will be other expenses such as maintenance to the home, taxes, and insurance that you may not be paying to rent a home.

The first thing to do is take a good look at your credit. The better your credit the better interest rate you will be able to obtain. Most property owners will also look at your credit, so you should at least get a copy of your credit report and be sure that you know what is there before moving at all.

To buy or not to buy, is a question you will have to answer on your own. However, it would be a good idea to talk with Realtor that can provide you with information on homes for sale in the area so you can get a better idea of the cost of buying a home instead of renting. Contact a professional real estate agent today at 888-865-5055; you may be surprised at the homes you can actually afford.

San Diego Real Estate Climate

At a recent real estate conference, held at the University of San Diego experts stated that the short-term growth is still slow for national economies and San Diego.

Organizers of the conferences stated they had around 700 in attendance at the 17th annual conference, which was held at the downtown Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, presented by USD’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.

The head of Americas Research for the brokerage firm CBRE, Asieh Monsour, explained that the major metro office markets in the US, which includes San Diego, would still move toward equilibrium during the rest of the year and onward into 2014 instead of slanting in favor of tenants.

New construction even though limited has helped the commercial real estate market recover its value and financing for tentative construction remains infrequent. "It’s a very disciplined approach to development," Monsour stated.

Monsour along with other experts stated that multifamily will stay the strongest market in the commercial sectors for the near future due to young consumers for higher density housing in the urban areas. Monsour explained that e-commerce is putting pressure on retail real estate, however creating options for the industrial sector, as online sellers require convenient warehousing to meet same-day shipping requirements.

Many speakers discussed the need to continue with improving local infrastructure and foster innovation like airport services to make the region more competitive for development of projects that will bring in new workers and new employers.

Speakers at the conference included Malin Burnham, former chairman of Burnham Real Estate; Ernest Rady, executive chairman of American Assets Trust Inc.; and Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs.

If you would like to invest in commercial property or find a home that will fit your budget and your families needs, then you need a professional real estate agent that knows the area. Contact a real estate agent today at 888-865-5055.

Substantial Interest in Hospice Property

Substantial interest has been seen in the San Diego Hospice’s bluff top property in Hillcrest, according to the real estate broker marketing company concerning the 8-acre parcel. The bankruptcy auction is scheduled for April 30.

Doug Lozier, a real estate broker for Studley Commercial Tenant Advisors, stated, "I think there’s quite heavy interest. It’s an incredible site." The company was appointed by the court to prepare the Third Avenue property for auction.

The San Diego Hospice was at one time the largest nonprofit operator in the area, which filed for Chapter 11 on Feb. 4, explaining an ongoing Medicare audit dried up its patient volume, which forced them to close.

The hospice collaborated with Scripps Health and offered an initial "stalking horse" bid of $10.7 million for the property; however, other bidders are free to make higher offers. The property has several buildings that include a 24-bed hospice hospital paid for with an $18.5 million contribution from the late Joan Kroc.

At this time, the property is operated as a hospice; however, the underlying zoning is low-density multiunit residential.

If you are looking for commercial property in the San Diego area, contact a Realtor today at 888-865-5055.

California Home Inventory Low

A report from Zillow that was just released by the Seattle based data tracker showed that Sacramento home inventory is the lowest of the low.

The number of homes that were listed for sale in the Sacramento area via Zillow decreased 48% year over year in the later part of February.

The figure topped the thirty largest United States metro markets that are tracked by Zillow. Los Angeles came in 2nd place with a decrease of 45.7%.

When you look at the nation as a whole, the decrease was 16.6%.

The report was based on the homes for sale on Zillow on February 24th and compared it to the number of homes that were available on February 24th, 2012.

The way in which the year over year decrease was compiled in the Sacramento area was top tier homes decreased 33.4%, middle tier homes declined 53.2%, while bottom tier homes were down 61.5%.

Homes in California metro areas were in the top 4 United States markets that saw the largest decline in homes for sale when compared to the same period of time last. San Francisco decline 40.9% and San Diego decreased 39.4%.

Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist stated, "The supply of for-sale listings continues to dry up, driven in part by potential sellers trapped in negative equity and homeowners that won’t sell out of fear they won’t be able to find a suitable home to buy later," and went on to say. Over the past year, inventory tightness has contributed to increases in home values in many markets.

"As home values rise, some homeowners will be freed from negative equity and able to list their homes, which will contribute to an easing of the inventory crunch."

San Diego apartments growing in popularity

The majority of economic indicators in San Diego County are moving at a pace that is acceptable. The population is of course growing and in 2012, the county gained around 20,000 new jobs. The future for 2013 looks like it will be about the same if not better. The sales tax revenue was up over 7% and car sales are through the roof. The only weak factor is the building of homes for sale. This industry is still moving at a slow pace of 20% which is the level seen in the early 2000′s.

Then you look at the apartments in San Diego. At this time, San Diego County is home to 300,000 apartment units which is about like it was ten years ago. From this figure, 45% rent the units, while 55% own their apartments. This is not a proud figure for San Diego County as the majority of the United States 65% to 70% of apartments is owned instead of rented. On the other hand, this allows San Diego to have a dependable and vibrant rental market.

At this time, the occupancy rate of apartments stays around 95%, which is considered full occupancy as there is always down time when one tenant moves and until another move in to the property.

The demand for apartments will keep rising due to the number of jobs being created that the small number of homes for sale in the area. In most cases, when the economy is growing, residents in the San Diego area would be looking for new condos and new homes. The problem is that there are very few new homes and condos being built. The supply of new homes for sale will stay in this slump until 2015 when new lots will be available for those in the development industry, which will mainly be in South County.

Adding to the demand, San Diego County has close to half of the 180,000 condo inventory and 20% of 550,000 single family homes available for rent. This resulted from investors purchasing the properties from 2007 to 2010. The investors after purchasing the properties did repairs and upgrades and then placed them on the market as rental properties.

The prices are beginning to go up at the rate of 10% per annum, now investors are starting to take their profits via selling the properties to owner/occupants. The renters will then have to find a new home. What this does is put close to 225,000 homes into the investor owned group and if we only believe, 5% of those properties will hit the market that puts 11,000 renters out of a home.

This means that all the vacant apartments that are available would be rented with an overflow. This will create a major problem.

We are in the process of building apartments in San Diego County with close to 10,000 planned, which either are now under construction or planned.

Around 3,400 of the apartments are in downtown San Diego with 6 of the 12 projects under construction at this time. The tallest are Leo Frey’s 2-story Ariel in Little Italy and Pinnacle’s 500 unit 45-story facility in East Village. The rest are mainly low rise.

In the suburbs around San Diego, there are several large projects in the works as well. These include:

• Carmel Partners – a 500-unit project on the old Uni High site across from the University of San Diego
• Garden Communities – 1,800-unit project at Interstate 15 and Mira Mesa Boulevard
• Garden Communities – 300-unit project in Carmel Valley
• R&V Management – 280-unit project in Chula Vista (Rosina Vista)

The majority of these market rate projects have a cost that is in excess of $200,000 per unit. In most cases, the rent needs to be 1.2% per month of the unit cost. The average rent when using this method will be close to $2,400. Even though the number may be big, it is still below the rents found in Washington, DC, New York, and San Francisco and will be affordable for the white collar market.

The question that comes into play is if an investor is able to spend so much money on an apartment and still make a profit. The average apartment in 1970 sold for $11,428. In 1990, that same apartment sold for $58,000, while in 2012, the average sale price of an existing apartment was $149,698.

In conclusion, San Diego County is a very desirable place to own an apartment.

If you are looking for your dream home whether an apartment or a single family home, contact a real estate agent today at 888-865-5055.

January San Diego Real Estate Market

The HomeDex Report for January 2013 was released recently.

The median price for attached and detached homes in North County home sales declined to $410,000 in the month of January 2013 when compared to $425,000 in December of 2012.

Detached homes declined 5.01% in January to $465,000 in North County when compared to $489,500 in December 2012.

In the county, the median SFD price declined 6.01$ to $360,000 in January of 2013 when compared to $383,000 in December 2012.

The number of SFD active and contingent listings in North San Diego County decreased 0.24% in the month of January 2013 when compared to December 2012.

The number of sold SFD units in North San Diego County declined 20.38% in January of 2013 when compared to December 2012. However. The year over sold SFD units rose 22.57% when compared to the January of 2012.

The average days on the market for detached single family homes sold in San Diego North County declined to 36 days in January of 2012 while in December of 2012 the days on the market was 48 days.

The HomeDex affordability percentage for all types of homes in North San Diego County rose to 44% in January of 2012, while in December of 2012 it was 41%.

For anyone looking for that perfect dream home in San Diego or the surrounding areas, you will need a professional Realtor by your side to help you find the home that fits your needs as well as fits your budget.

Contact a San Diego real estate agent today at 888-865-5055.

The future in real estate San Diego Development

In San Diego County, there is a lack of available land according to professional during a real estate meeting, which is changing the forms of commercial development.

Gary London, a speaker at the London Group meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in the Carmel Valley area and president of the London Group Realty Advisers stated, "The Otay Ranch projects are the last of a breed of master-planned communities. The only way we’re going to be able to accommodate the people coming (mostly births over deaths) is to build up rather than out."

A London Group principal, Alan Nevin explained that even at Otay Ranch, "no new large lot releases will happen prior to 2015."

Larry Clemens that developed the Avaiara property in Carlsbad added, "Where there is land, in the East County, for example, the predominant owner is the federal government." Clemens went on to explain that the long processing time is also an issue. In addition, when the Academy of Our Lady of Peace school planned to build a parking garage along with science buildings it to an entire 8 years to get entitled. "The new NIMBY [not in my backyard] doesn’t want any development," Clemens said.

London stated that when you take the large land tracts out of the picture, brown fields that have major toxics problems along with old shopping centers that are worn are getting a once over for new projects.

"Millennials [people born between 1980 and 2000] are going to continue to demand apartments," London stated. "Most of us aren’t going to be building single-family, and the price of housing is going to be significantly bid up."

Nevin also commented on the changing demographics in San Diego that is always mixing it up. He stated, "Two thirds of all housing units have no one living in them who is under 18, and only one in seven households consist of a mom and dad and two kids. The ‘Leave it to Beaver’ years are over." He went on to say that 25% are living alone.

"The apartments are basically full," Nevin stated.

When he looked at the office market, he explained that while Class A vacancies are now in the single digits in a few submarkets, the Class B and C are completely different.

"Of the 120 million square feet of office space in this county, 80 million of it is in B and C space that has higher vacancies," London stated. "I don’t think we’re going to need to build any more office space."

He went on to say that most businesses are not using file cabinets which means office space can be less, therefore the demand for office space will also decrease. On the other hand, he explained that The Irvine Company might choose to develop a 700,000 square foot office tower at West Broadway and Pacific Highway close to the bayfront in downtown San Diego that has been lying on the shelf.

Robert Rauch, the developer for the Hilton Garden Inn, stated the county has around 58,000 hotel rooms, but will see another 600 added this year.

Rauch also stated that occupancies, even at their worst, still averaged about 60%, before returning to the over 70% ranges within the past year.

He said he is concerned that if a deal is not worked out between the White House and Congress over sequestration, recreational travel and business may stop spending.

For now, he seemed cautiously optimistic. "I think we are probably in the fourth or fifth inning of the recovery," Rauch stated.

Another London Group principal specializing in retail, Bill Speer said that the sector has recovered faster than many would have expected.

He explained that around 50 million square feet of retail space is under construction at this time in sixty projects across the United States. He went on to explain that locally, there was expansion and ongoing development at many of the seven Westfield malls which is a good sign of retails resilience.

"You’ve seen the UTC expansion. Now, $200 million to $300 million worth of redevelopment is planned at Horton Plaza and another $200 million to $300 million is also planned at Plaza Camino Real in Carlsbad," Speer stated.

If you are in search of the perfect location for your new business in San Diego or your new dream home in one of the communities surrounding San Diego, contact a San Diego real estate agent today at 888-865-5055.

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