Median price of singlefamily home in San Diego County hits $1 million

It's happened.

The median price of a single-family home in San Diego County reached $1 million in April, according to the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors.

“It's unbelievable that it's a million,” said Chris Anderson, association president. “It blows my mind.”

Rising interest rates have slowed demand slightly, Anderson said, but not to the point where prices are likely to drop.

“I think it will hold,” Anderson said. “There are still a lot of properties over $1 million going into escrow,” adding that five homes she's listed have all gotten offers over $1 million.

Weird Times

As of April, the median price of a single-family home in San Diego County was an even $1 million, according to the association – a nearly 2.6% increase from March and nearly 19.3% higher than April 2021 when the median sales price was $838,438.

Del Mar posted the highest median price for single family homes in April, $3.1 million.

The greatest number of sales in April were in North County and East County, Anderson said.

The median price of attached homes countywide – condominiums and townhomes – rose to $660,500 – an increase of nearly 2.9% from March and 24.6% from April 2021 when the median price was $530,000.

“It's really a weird time because this is now our selling season. I think the selling season is still going to be the selling season but it slowed up a little bit,” Anderson said. ‘If they dropped those interest rates a little, we're going to bet a little more fuel again.”

As of mid-May, the national average for a 30-year fixed rate single-family home fixed-rate mortgage was 5.42%, according to Bankrate.

Anderson said that rising interest rates could cause home prices to level off or rise at a slower rate. “The fast and furious isn't happening quite like it was,” Anderson said, and some sellers are moderating their expectations.

Even so, she said sellers are still getting multiple offers on homes and buyers in many cases are still willing to pay more than the listed price.

For instance, Anderson said she sold a National City home for $100,000 above the listed price. Homes also are selling faster than they were a year ago, with the average time on the market 20 days in April 2022 for single-family homes compared to 23 days a year ago.

Rents Rising

Not surprisingly, apartment rental rates in San Diego are rising almost in lockstep with home prices as higher home prices push more people into the rental market.

Year-over-year, Chula Vista had the highest rent increase with monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment rising 39% from May 2021 to $2,210, according to Zumper, an apartment listing service. Statewide, one-bedroom apartments were going for $2,018

Carlsbad had the priciest one-bedroom apartments in San Diego at $2,530, a 28% increase from a year ago.

Coming in with the lowest monthly rents in May was El Cajon, at $1,560 for a one-bedroom apartment, according to Zumper, a 15% increase over May 2021. ■