I have driven up and down the stretch of Hwy 101 that extends from Carmel Valley Road up to Via de La Valle hundreds of times, it is one of my favorite areas of San Diego yet I had never questioned how it all came to be. This piece of heaven also called Del Mar California has the feel of a European medieval town, with the feel of a small community and ocean views that never end.So how did it all get started?

I found some information on Del Mar 's history through it's own historical society. According to documents found the date when you could say everything was set in motion was on August 14 1882, the day the railroad tracks were laid along this stretch of coastline in the effort of uniting San Diego and San Bernardino.

The man in charge of overseeing the project was Theodor M. Loop an engineer and contractor. He set up camp in a beautiful parcel of land that he referred to as "the most attractive place on the entire coast.". He set up a tent city and built a house for himself and his family. It was his wife Emma who named it, Ella, called it "Del Mar" - words taken from a popular poem, The Fight on Paseo Del Mar.

Loop met a gentleman named "Colonel" Jacob Taylor who suggested they develop the area and build a town here. It was 1885 when he purchased 338.11 acres at the northern end of the mesa from homesteader Enoch Talbert. It is said that he paid $1,000. And at this Del Mar was officially founded.
Taylor had a very clear picture in his mind of what the area was to become. His plan was for this to be a playground for the well to do, a seaside resort for the elite. The visionary designed and built a town whose focal point was Casa del Mar, a hotel-resort. Other town attractions included a natatorium, dancing pavilions, and a bathing pool extending from the beach out into the sea.In 1889 tragedy struck and the main attraction, the hotel, burnt down to the ground and so the town was left without it's focal point. This together with the struggling economy left the small town in a dormant state for at least 15 years.

It was until the beginning of the 1900 when The South Coast Land Company hired a prominent Los Angeles architect, John C. Austin, to draw plans for a new hotel, the Hotel Del Mar. The hotel opened in 1910, and fulfilling the original plans for the area, the elegant hotel served as a magnet for Hollywood stars of the silent film days.

From 1912 till 1920 beautiful new homes began to appear around the new town and many of them soon became landmarks. Construction was halted in the 1930's

Still it was during this time in 1933 when the search for a site to host the San Diego County Fair began. Ed Fletcher suggested that the 184 acre site in the San Dieguito Valley - just off the main highways and the Santa Fe Road - would be easily accessible and a perfect setting for a fairground.
It was on October 8, 1936 when the fair opened with an attendance of fifty thousand guests.

Bing Crosby made the Del Mar Turf Club a reality and Pat O'Brien became the Vice President. The Race track opened on July 3, 1937,and with it a new era began in Del Mar. The track was hailed as Bing's Baby or Movieland's Own Track. In 1938, Bing recorded the song that would open and close everyday of racing since those early days - Where the Turf Meets the Surf (click to listen to the song).

The race track brought A list celebrities and personalities every year, and many of them decided to set up homes in Del Mar, among them Lucy and Desi, Burt Bacharach and many others.

However during World war II the race track had to be closed and converted into a bomber tail assembly production facility until 1945 when racing returned to the the track.

The city of Del Mar was incorporated until 1959. During the following two decades everything was mostly quiet in the area. There was a growing movement of people in Del Mar whose goal was to beautify and maintain the open space, and it was at this time when the gorgeous Seagrove park with its grassy are overlooking the ocean was created.

Today the centerpieces of new Del Mar are L'Auberge - a beautiful hotel designed with the Stratford Inn in mind - and just recently renovated. And the elegant shops and boutiques of the picturesque seaside shopping center, Del Mar Plaza. Its selection of restaurants provides great taste, mood, and rave reviews.

Del Mar has maintained it's picturesque main street, it's small upscale town ambiance, with beautiful homes each one unique and different from the rest, some landmarks in their own right some brand new.

Today Del Mar is 92014 zip code. According to the Multiple Listing Service information the area has:
142 Active Listings out of which 114 are detached and 34 are attached
7 Contingent listings
32 Pending
15 Sales in the past 30 days
This gives it a 9.47 month inventory of homes.
60 properties on the counties list of foreclosure and preforeclosure.
And according to the statistics of the sales the averages are:
A.Selling Price-$1,640,770
A.Price per Square Foot $740.52
A.Days on Market 108
A. percentage of sale to asking price 94%

The School District includes the Del Mar Union School District which is one of the highest ranking school districts in all of San Diego. It has 8 Elementary schools and 2 middle schools and 2 High Schools.

For more detailed information you can visit my web site http://www.sandiegoexclusiveproperties.com/ or contact me by:
email info@sdexclusiveproperties
twitter www.twitter.com/rinapodolsky
facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123662939207&ref=ts

You can even search properties in Del Mar just by going to our web site


All the information in this blog has not been checked, it is believed accurate but not guaranteed.

Do we have a Sellers Market in San Diego?

I just finished doing my bi -monthly analysis of the market conditions in the San Diego region and I was struck by how many of the local zip codes have an inventory of less than 6 months.

If you have been following my blog you will probably remember that the mark to differentiate between a buyers and a sellers market is the months of inventory available for sale at a given time frame. Any market that has 6 months worth of inventory or above is considered to be a "Hot" market or a "sellers" market.

This morning I checked 21 different zip codes in the area and found that 12 out of those 21 had an inventory that was under the 6 month mark and only 4 had an inventory above the 10 month mark.
The other interesting factor that came to be apparent in this mornings research was that many of these areas with low inventories had sold for an average of 100 percent of asking price or more. Another clear sign of a Hot Market that we had not seen in a long time.

Among the areas with the lowest inventory rates are the following zip codes:

Zip Code Inventory
91010 3.83
91913 3.57
92010 2.9
92122 3.8


Two of this zip codes belong to Chula Vista, one more to Carlsbad and the last one is in University City.

It is not surprising that most of the areas with the hottest markets at this point are also the areas that had the highest drop in prices and the highest number in foreclosures and short sales in the county.

Now looking at the zip codes that currently have the highest inventory we see:

ZIP CODE INVENTORY
92014 9.35
92075 11.45
92037 12.4
92101 9.73
92067 33.4


Most of this areas are coastal areas or very expensive zip codes with multi million dollar homes that have an average selling price of around $400 to $500 dollars per square foot. This are homes that would require jumbo loans if someone wanted to purchase a home with a 20 or 30% down payment.

The one exception to this last statement would be the 92101 zip code that belongs to the Downtown San Diego region. The situation with downtown is different because of the recent overflow of new projects that have been built in the last few years, that include many high rises and multi unit condos that have inundated the market in that particular area.


So as a conclusion from this morning look at the Real Estate market latest numbers I must say that at least for now the market HAS shifted into a hot market in the low to mid range priced areas and is staying cool at the upper priced regions.

The question still remains what is driving this market upswing? many believe it is the first time home buyers fueled by the tax credit incentive that is about to go away. together with the low mortgage rates and investors jumping in to buy well priced properties at bottom prices.


I hope you find this information helpful and if you are interested in getting any more specific details regarding the data that was used for this Blog, please feel free to contact me.


rina@my858realtor.com
http://www.my858realtor.com/
www.twitter.com/rinapodolsky
http://www.mysandiegorealtor.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=123662939207&ref=ts

Carmel Valley's market Snapshot as of February 24, 2009

Here is a snapshot of Carmel Valley's Real Estate Market.

ACTIVE

• Total Listings 284
• Detached 195
• Attached/Town/Twin 89

PENDING

• Total Listings 59
• Detached 26
• Attached/Town/Twin 33

SOLD (January 24 -February 24, 2009)

• Total Listings 27
• Detached 23
• Attached/Town/Twin 1

STATISTICS

HIGH

• Selling Price $8,250,000.00
• Selling Price / Sq Ft $419.90
• Selling Price vs. Listing Price 100%
• Days on Market 232

LOW

• Selling Price $351,000.00
• Selling Price / Sq Ft $218.26
• Selling Price vs. Listing Price 83%
• Days on Market 3

AVERAGE

• Selling Price $1,068.86
• Selling Price / Sq Ft $327.66
• Selling Price vs. Listing Price 94%
• Days on Market 68

The information provided is intended to reflect what happened in the market for a brief period of time, it is useful as a analytical tool but it is important to keep in mind that it only reflects a short amount of time. For example last month a home did sell for $611.00 dlls per square foot. As with any data it is important to gather at least 3 months worth of information to get a clearer picture.

If you have any questions or would like to hear more about the local Real Estate Market, please feel free to contact me.

Also if you or someone you know is considering buying, selling or investing in Real Estate please contact me @ rina@my858realtor.com

You can also look for me in Twitter (rinapodolsky), befriend me on Facebook (Rina Pod) and our web site www.my858realtor.com

All information has been pulled from Sandicor MLS, all deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

So...How is the Real estate Market???

This is a question I hear every day, and in all honesty...there is no simple answer.
The reality is that it all depends on why you are asking? it is not that the facts change, it is that the focus you have while looking at those facts creates a whole different explanation.

And as if that was not enough...we cannot talk about a Real Estate market in San Diego in general and expect to have an accurate picture of all areas. You have to clearly define what area in San Diego county you are interested in. If you look at Chula Vista it is an entire different picture than Encinitas for example.

Now having said that, let's take a look at certain current conditions that do affect the market in general.



Even though there has been talk about the banks shifting their aim from foreclosing on faulty loans to attempting to work things out and renegotiating with the homeowners who have this loans, it takes time...unfortunately for those people already going through the process of being foreclosed upon, this shift has come too little to late. And we have yet to hear from this lenders, who will be able to renegotiate, under what terms and for how long. Until this does not come to fruition we are not certain how it will affect the market



New loans are hard to qualify for and are taking much longer than expected which in turn is causing homes to stay on the market for longer periods of time and escrows to take much longer than before and in some cases to even fall through. So even though rates are at a very attractive level right now, that means nothing unless you can qualify for one, and then actually get funded.



Most sellers are more sensitive to the conditions of the current market that what they were let's say one year ago, which in turn translates to more offers being accepted and more homes going into escrow. From our experience, generally speaking if a home is priced correctly and marketed correctly it will get sold, it is just taking longer.


Now, interestingly enough, for the first time in months I have found ourselves in multiple offer situations, it might have been a coincidence and it has not happened consistently enough for me to consider it a trend, but it is a start.


So in closing, we are in a challenging market but not everything is looking grim, and I actually do believe we are reaching a turning point.

In one of my next postings I will address specific areas and data to give you some facts and numbers.

If you have any specific areas of San Diego county you would like me to address please let me know and I will do so.


Best regards for now!