“Spooked by the Housing Market?”

At the start of this year, some of the top nancial advisors in the nation predicted at least a 12% drop in the values of our homes in San Diego County. At the time, I disagreed and wrote in this paper that I believed they were wrong. Since then, the housing market has shi ed, with consistently increasing home values and reduced market time.

Lately, I have heard more of the same nervous talk and a sense of doom among both buyers and sellers. I hope this helps put you at ease. I encourage people to research the market and meet with their nancial experts, and carefully evaluate their strategies before making any nancial decisions. I have never taken a nancial planning course but slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

The Housing Market Is Crashing

e value of homes in San Diego County has continued to increase over the last twelve months. is is despite the average home interest rate doubling from the low 3% to as much as over 7%. If in ation eases and interest rates lower there will likely be an additional run-up in home values

No Homes Are Available

Home Inventory is low, and this situation is further exacerbated by some agents that, for various reasons, do not fully expose their client’s home on the open market. It can be very frustrating to potential buyers to see a home advertised as “coming soon,” only for the listing agent to double end the deal within their brokerage and cancel the open house.

More deals are occurring o market than ever before.

But to many of our clients’ surprise, there is some new home inventory in the surrounding communities, including Poway and San Marcos. A few home builders are not o ering REALTORS commissions, while others are starting to. We don’t worry if the builder is o ering a commission to our agents, as our duty, above all else, is to serve our clients.

I advise selecting an agent you have faith in and working diligently with them so they understand what you are looking for and how much you are willing to spend. Combining this with a fully underwritten loan approval gives you the necessary tools to be successful.

Our team has had a busy few months representing buyers and sellers. As I look back on the past year, the increasing values and reduced home inventory have de nitely impacted the local housing market.

Despite these changing dynamics, we have had home sellers enter escrow above appraised value with multiple o ers as recently as last week. We have also helped investors and home buyers purchase homes and investment properties well below their advertised value.

In addition to fewer people buying and selling, I worry about many REALTORS © who have had their slowest year in a long time, with many of them considering leaving our industry. California’s licensed realtors have experienced a substantial drop in membership over the last twelve months.

I thought it would be helpful to address a few of the issues people seem most concerned about.

Qualcomm Is Laying Off

I know the headline is scary, and to many of you in our community who recently received termination notices, I sincerely wish you the best in these challenging times.

First, let me say that I Qualcomm. We raised our family here in 4S Ranch, which has the affectionate nickname, “Qualcomm Ranch.” In addition to providing very high-paying jobs and excellent employee benefits, Qualcomm is one of those rare companies that constantly pursues innovation. I believe their success is primarily due to their culture, not hesitating to take risks and the countless hours their dedicated employees have spent tirelessly pushing the envelope.

I also love Qualcomm because their chip technology has changed our world and is integrated into most of our military technology, making the world safer.

Many of my friends who work at Qualcomm provided me with the balanced perspective that 1,200 layo s are less than 2% of the Qualcomm workforce, and many of those terminated were provided with substantial exit bene ts o en tied to their tenure with the company.

So many of these very talented engineers will likely get employment and work at other exceptional local technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Illumina, Viacom, Intuit, and Northrup Grumman.

Several people thought there would be a ood of listed homes for sale in 92127 as a result. But as I said, Qualcomm engineers are brilliant. Some are moving, but many are choosing to lease out their homes instead of selling them. Remember, the federal guideline to avoid up to 500K in capital gains taxes requires you to live in your home for two out of the last ve years. Renting versus selling now with the option to sell within three years and still get the tax advantages is a sound alternative.

Interest Rates Are Too High

Yes, the interest rate is going up, and there is talk it will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. To help with this one, I contacted two of our trusted lender referrals to get their perspective. Therina Wang is a loan officer for U.S. Bank, and Tracey Wheeler is a loan officer with Guaranteed Rate.

We all have heard the phrase that knowledge is power. To emphasize that point and to bring you the latest information, I have asked Therina and Tracey to attend one of our two 45-minute training seminars, which will be held at our expansive International Global Campus Location in 4S Village. Some of you may call it a kiosk (next door to the Shell Station) while the rest of us refer to it as The Community Hub®.