Buying a Home in San Diego

When you are buying a home in San Diego, it's important to review market reports and statistics to know what's going on in the marketplace. I ran this report on 1/21/10. My report showed that 21 listings closed escrow in the last 90 days (according to information from Sandicor) in the Little Italy district of downtown San Diego. Prices ranged from $170,000 to $465,000. Some were bank-owned foreclosures, and others were short sales. Some properties sold for more than the list price and others sold for less. In the picture below you can review the report. Of course, we can run these reports for any area of San Diego, and this is part of what I do when reviewing the marketplace with my clients in our initial consultation (see my blog post about the Globella Buyer Strategy Session).

My report also showed that there are 45 active listings for sale in Little Italy. If 21 listings sold in the last three months, that's an average of seven per month. If we stay on that pace, it will take about six months to sell most of the current inventory. If you want to buy a condo downtown, you may come across many types of listings including bank-owned foreclosures and short sales. It is absolutely important that you hire an agent on your side of the transaction to help you navigate your way through this funky real estate market.

Click here to view current listings for sale in Little Italy and other areas of downtown San Diego.

Electra is a luxury condo building in downtown San Diego built in 2007. The building is 43 stories tall with 248 units. Many of the units have phenomenal views of downtown and the San Diego Bay. I recently (July 2009) helped a client purchase a 2-bedroom (plus a den) condo on the 42nd floor. I wish I could move in! The place was beautiful. The amenities at Electra, in my opinion, are top-rate. I also love the fact that they preserved a historical building at the base of the development (see the picture on the right).

As of 1/21/10 there are 13 units for sale in the building (active listings). Most are re-sale listings, but some are still being sold by the developer. List prices range from $349,000 at the low end (for a 1/1 on the fourth floor) to $1,795,000 on the high end (for a 2/2 with 1,707 square feet on the 31st floor). There is also a unit on the 43rd floor (the top floor) listed for $1,650,000.

Another interesting thing is that there are currently zero Electra listings listed in Sandicor (the San Diego MLS) as "contingent." Listings with the "contingent" status most often are short sale listings that have already accepted an offer but are waiting on bank approval (which may take several months or may never happen). Currently, there are six listings in escrow (marked as "pending" in Sandicor), and two listings have actually sold there in the last three months.  One 2/2 unit on the sixth floor sold for $557,000 in December, and another 2/2 unit on the seventh floor sold for $595,000 in November.

If you would like to view Electra listings for sale, go to my official website and visit the downtown page at http://downtown.globella.com.

Click here to view all downtown San Diego real estate listings.

Many of my clients have bought condos in downtown San Diego. It's one of my favorite areas of San Diego. My goal is to be a resource to San Diego home buyers, and I have put together a website for buyers like you who want to know what's for sale in downtown (and you don't have to register to see the listings). You can see below exactly how the site looks.

Click here to go directly to my downtown site to search for condos in specific condo buildings.

As you can see, I have set up this website with links for every building in downtown. When you click on any link, you are able to view the current active listings in that specific condo building. I organized the buildings into the different districts of downtown (East Village, Ballpark, Cortez Hill, Little Italy, Columbia, Marina, and Core). I also designed an interactive Google map at the bottom of the page with a pin for every condo development on the list.

If you are looking for a condo in Little Italy, you will be interested in seeing listings in condo buildings such as 350 West Ash, Acqua Vista, Aperture, Bella Via, Breeza, Columbia and Fir Lofts, Date Street Townhomes, and Doma. Other condo projects in Little Italy include Ecco Lofts, Finestra Lofts, Hawthorn Place, Kettner Rowhomes, La Vita, Lusso Lofts, Palermo, Porta d'Italia, Portico, Porto Siena, The State, The Waterfront, Victorian House, and Village Walk.

If the Marina District is more your style, you will be able to view listings in buildings such as 235 on Market, Atria, Brickyard, Cityfront Terrace, Citywalk, Columbia Place, Crown Bay, Harbor Club, Horizons, Island Lofts, Marina Park, Pacific Terrace, Park Place, Park Row, Renaissance, Pinnacle Museum Tower, and Watermark.

Would you like to search for condos in the East Villlage/Ballpark district of downtown? On my site you can view all the active listings in each condo development including: Alta, Angove Lofts, Diamond Terrace, Element, Fahrenheit, Jacaranda Studios, M2i, Metrome, Nexus, Park Boulevard East, Park Boulevard West, Parkloft, Park Terrace, Rowhomes on F, Smart Corner, The Legend, The Lofts at 777, The Mark, Union Square, and Vantage Pointe.

Maybe you are more interested in the Columbia District? We have all of those buildings, too! In you the Columbia District section you will find listings for buildings such as Bayside, Electra, Sapphire Tower, Seven on Kettner, The Grande, and Treo.

The Gaslamp District has residences like Gaslamp City Square, Meridian, and Trellis.

Cortez Hill has condo buildings like Aloft, Aria, Beech Tower, Citymark at Cortez Hill, Cortez Blu, Discovery, El Cortez, Park at 10th, Parkview, and Solara Lofts.

Anyways, by now you should get the point. I've organized all the condo buildings in downtown into an easy-to-use search page. This way you can always see what's listed in any condo building in downtown San Diego at any time!

If you'd rather search on your own you can always use our search function at http://listings.globella.com.

I hope you enjoy looking at the listings. Remember, the internet is a great tool, but it doesn't take the place of a good real estate agent. I will be here whenever you are ready, and you can always know that as long as you hire a Globella agent you will always be hiring an exclusive buyer agent, and you will always have a company and an agent who works only on your side of the transaction - the BUYER'S SIDE.