Our housing market might suck a little but it doesn't suck a lot.

So Dean Calbreath over at The Union Tribune writes his article about how our housing market isn't the worst it could be:

In a study released last week by the U.S. Council of Mayors, San Diego did not even make the Top 50 list of communities that will be hurt by the decline in home prices next year. In fact, it ranked 88th in a roster of 362 metropolitan areas nationwide. Which still puts us at the bad end of the scale, but nowhere near the worst.

And people run with it.

How's the San Diego real estate market doing? Not bad at all, according to a commentary article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, which purports that America's finest city is feeling better with regard to the real estate market than the rest of the country.

This prompts the question, who is Dean Calbreath, and what else is he the authority on that we can run with? Will he tell me what kind of tree I should get for Christmas? Will he let me know where the best cup of Hot Chocolate in San Diego is? Will he please let me know WHY it thinks it can rain in San Diego? Did Dean Calbreath sign off on the rain?!

Living in San Diego is expensive

Buying a house is near impossible

I gave up on the whole buying a house thing quite a while ago, figuring it would happen when it happened and Oprah came to her senses and just GAVE me a bazillion dollars because I'm like the daughter she never had. My parents were renters; they rented all through my young life because it made sense to them until one day my Grandfather said "you're going to die someday and WHAT are your kids going to have to remember you by?" So my parents went and bought a house so we'd remember them. (I was PISSED because they didn't consult me first and let me pick it out, I was eleven.)

Anyway, they are trying to fix that whole mortgage, jumbo loan, oops I can't afford my now higher interest rates loan and I was supposed to be able to refinance but it's not working out and look I'm going in to foreclosure you bastards I just want to keep my house which is in VISTA because everything west of Vista is RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE, problem. From Sign On San Diego:

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested Thursday that Congress allow mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy and hold mortgages worth as much as $1 million, shattering the current loan limit of $417,000. Until now, an effort to increase the limit hasn't emerged from the Senate, with some lawmakers and housing experts arguing that it would be the wrong move. And a federal agency could actually lower the amount that can be borrowed in a conforming mortgage in 2009.

Home buyers who purchase more expensive homes must get what are called “jumbo loans” or second mortgages, both of which carry higher interest rates. In places such as San Diego, where home prices are above the national average, buyers face higher costs because of the conforming-loan limit.

It's expensive to live here, but we love it any way (we are a glutton for real estate punishment apparently).

It's statistics time! Dean Calbreath says not to expect housing to bounce back that quickly.

Check it out. From Sign on San Diego's Dean Calbreath:

The median family income in San Diego County is $69,400, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That puts us slightly below the median family income of $73,700 in Madison, Wis.; $71,400 in Denver; $72,600 in Norwich, Conn.; or $72,800 in Worcester, Mass. – to cite some examples from HUD's database.


Although we make less money than the people in those cities, we pay more than twice as much for our housing. In San Diego, the median sale price of an existing single-family home in the second quarter was $614,000, according to the National Association of Realtors. Compare that with $223,500 in Madison, $255,200 in Denver, $276,600 in Norwich and $278,900 in Worcester.

Basically, this is what I learned from this op ed piece (which by the way you should read): Meadianly (that's not a word but I'm Managing Editor so I'm leaving it) San Diego doesn't pay for well, but we live by the beach, so we pay for that.

I once heard a lady say "I live on Macaroni and Cheese from Walmart, but I do it in SAN DIEGO."

Expect the housing market to stay... slow. I worry less about people not being able to buy houses then I do about the landlords looking around and going "oh wee, lets charge more money to those people who are making less then peole in freaking Wisconsin!"

Sub Prime loans for dummies: Real Estate is on the brain

From Voice of San Diego: Rich Toscano gives us a Nerds Eye View


Here's what I think. The subprime financing "issue," in a nutshell, was this: lenders had been making loans that were very unlikely ever to be paid back. Then they stopped.

And that about sums up Real Estate Wednesday.