San Diego Housing Market Cools - Buyers See Opportunity

San Diego home buyers have noticed a cool down in the market.

“We need more space, and I feel like there’s good opportunity in the market right now,” said Adam Burch, who's searching for a new home.

Burch believes now is the best time to buy. He says uncertainty in the economy has caused a drop in demand, pushing sellers to negotiate pricing.

“There’s a lot of homes hanging out on the market for longer than I’ve seen, they also seem to be selling for lower than the list price,” Burch said.

Lina Saba at Compass Real Estate confirmed this trend. She showed me an app the company uses to track housing trends. According to the app, almost half of sellers in the San Diego market lowered their pricing in the last month.

“When inventory was super scarce we were having homes flying off the shelf," Saba said. "Now we dont see that as much.”

Declining prices and more inventory can be indicators of a recession, but Saba says that’s not the case just yet. She says the market has not been as volatile as the economy.

"What are some indicators in the housing market that the U.S. is heading into a recession?”

“Right now, we’re not sure yet. I think that will come if we start to hear the news of layoffs," Saba said. "Once people aren’t able to keep up with their mortgage payments and we start to see defaults or short sales, that's when we’ll know. But we’re not there quite yet.”

San Diego homes are still expensive, and the reductions aren't so extreme. The median price of a single-family home was just under a million dollars in February. The Federal Reserve has signaled it will not cut interest rates yet because they expect higher tariffs to boost inflation.

“Until they see the result of inflation and the result of new tariffs, they're not going to be able to make that determination,”

Saba advises buyers who can afford the mortgage to buy now, and refinance their rates later, although she says it's harder than ever to predict the market.

Source: Perla Shaheen, 10new.com