How much did we decline??
Today is the last Tuesday of the month and the S&P/Case-Shiller report on home price indicies is out. For San Diego it reports a 25% decline in prices from July 2007 and July 2008. In other words a home that sold in July 2007 for $1,000,000 would be selling for $750,000 in July 2008. How does that actually compare to our home sales here in 4S Ranch? There has been a decline in prices here but not as large as Case-Shiller reports for the San Diego area. In a perfect world to find how much a home declined one would have the same home with all the exact same external influences and just compare the numbers. This does not happen very often. The next best thing is to take the same floor plans and compare them. I found a sale on Honeybrook. This 1931 sq. ft. home sold on June 6, 2007 for $597,500 and the same floor plan on the same street sold for $545,000 July 23, 2008, that’s less than a 10% drop in one year. Here is an example of a 25% drop. A property on Silver Pine was purchased from the builder for $921,500 December 2005 and sold as a bank owned foreclosure for $688,000 in August 2008, however, that’s over a 2 and a half year period. Homes vary greatly in their value contributing attributes, such as size, views and ages. Appraisers pull their hair out trying to compare similar homes and their differences to establish market values. In general, I’ve calculated that properties within 4S Ranch have experienced about a 10% decline in value within the past 12 months.