San Diego County homeowners are in the driver’s seat as many are regaining equity that they lost 10 years ago when the recession slashed housing prices by 40-50 percent, one expert told NBC 7.
Earlier this week, the median home sale price in the county exceeded $500,000, the highest since November 2005. The prices for homes cause some to shake their head in despair.
“I don’t know how our kids are going to be able to make it,” said Bonita resident Ted Scales.
Tracy Real said it’s much more expensive than her old hometown in Wisconsin.
“We could own the whole block in comparison for what I could purchase a house for here,” Real said.
But mortgage Broker Sam Calvano said the news of the increase in housing prices is welcome to one group of residents – those homeowners who watched their properties drop in value in the 2006-2007 recession.
“They have waited out this recession and they watched their values drop 40, 50 percent and now they’ve come back up to what they used to be and they have equity again,” Calvano said. “They can move out with all the equity they had years ago.”
Local
“That’s their payoff for being patient,” he said.
Virgilio Miclat, Coldwell Banker Real Estate agent who focuses on communities in the South Bay said there has been more activity in the last few weeks but it’s mostly people speculating about getting into the market.
Could housing prices go up even higher? Both Miclat and Calvano have their doubts.
“Wages have stagnated,” Calvano said. “If wages don’t go up, people can’t afford to pay higher prices.”
He also said it’s unlikely to see properties jump up 20 percent in one year like they did before the recession given the changes in lending.
“Borrowers do not have the loan flexibility they had 10 years ago,” Calvano said.
