Forbes Outlook: San Diego in top 5 home markets in '11

San Diego ranked No. 5 out of 315 housing markets that Forbes.com says are poised for price increases in 2011 and in the coming years. (See The Best And Worst Cities For Home Values In 2011.)

The finance publication predicts that the median home price in San Diego will rise 2 percent in the next 12 months and through the next three years, based on findings from Local Market Monitor, a research company that analyzed data from real estate markets throughout the U.S. The company also factored in the areas' unemployment and job growth rates.

(Television station NBC San Diego reported the findings on Monday.)
Two other California cities - San Jose and Santa Ana - topped the list of U.S. cities where home values are likely to rise steadily over the next three years. Median home prices in both San Jose and Santa Ana are expected to rise 3 percent in the next 12 months and an average of 2 percent annually over the next three years.
While Forbes predicts California to head toward somewhat of a housing recovery, it says Florida shouldn't hold its breath. Cities in the Sunshine State dominated the list of cities in the country that are expected to fare the worst in home values: Daytona Beach, Lakeland and Orlando. (Here's Forbes slideshow of the worst cities.)
Forbes quotes Ingo Winzer, president of the Local Market Monitor, as saying, "The big difference between Florida and Southern California ... is people are moving into Southern California, but they're not moving to Florida."
Five out of eight contributors of the Union-Tribune's Econometer also believe the region will see an increase in home prices.

Cities where home values will likely go up:

1. San Jose
2. Santa Ana
3. Bethesda, Md.
4. Pittsburgh
5. San Diego

Which California city from Forbes' rankings will see the most price gains in '11?

San Jose 19% 40 votes

Santa Ana 4% 9 votes

San Diego 76% 161 votes

Special Thanks to Lily Leung   for the info!

California's $1 Million+ Homes in Demand

Hey Everyone! I always like to post articles regarding San Diego and California. Here is one to read. Enjoy!

02/11/11 - 01:25 PM EST

LA JOLLA, Calif. (DQNews) -- While overall California home sales declined last year, the number that sold for $1 million or more in 2010 rose for the first time in five years as certain segments of the economy improved and high-end home shoppers went bargain hunting, a real estate information service reported.

Last year 22,529 Golden State homes sold for $1 million or more. That was up 21.0% from 18,621 in 2009 and the highest since 2008, when 24,436 homes sold for $1 million-plus, according to MDA DataQuick. The San Diego firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
Million-dollar sales peaked in 2005 at 54,773, after which they declined each year through 2009.
The jump in $1 million-plus home sales in 2010 compares with a 9.0% year-over-year drop in total home sales, including all price levels. California's 418,578 total sales in 2010 were down from 460,166 in 2009. About one in 20 homes sold for a million dollars in 2010, while the year before it was one in 25, and in 2008 it was one in 16.
"Prestige home buyers respond to a different set of motivations than the rest of us. Their decisions are less dependent on jobs, prices and interest rates, and more on how their portfolio is doing. When the financial world was full of uncertainty a couple of years back, and the jumbo loan market dried up, luxury sales plummeted. As the economy started its top down recovery, some wealthy buyers went looking for a bargain," said John Walsh, DataQuick president.
"Additionally, there has always been a safe-haven component in the million-dollar market that attracts wealth," he said.
Statewide, 463 homes sold for more than $5 million last year, while 304 were in the $4-$5 million range, 782 were in the $3-$4 million range, 2,333 were in the $2-$3 million range, and the rest - nearly 79% - sold for between $1 million and $2 million.
Last year 3,380 of the homes that sold statewide for less than $1 million had previously sold for $1 million or more, based on a public records analysis of transactions where necessary information was available for both sales. The median date of the prior sale was April 2006; the median price decline between the 2010 sale and the prior sale was $416,500, translating into a median price drop of 34.6%.
DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
The million-dollar transactions include home sales where it could be determined from public records that there was a buyer, a seller, that money changed hands, and that there was a legal transfer of property ownership. Not included were property swaps, sales of multiple lots, sales where no price or loan amount was available, teardowns, and large farm or ranch properties. Sales to companies and trusts were included.
The most expensive confirmed purchase last year, based on public records, was a 35,378-square-foot, 15-bedroom, 7-bathroom Bel Air (Los Angeles) house built in 2007 which sold for $50,000,000 in June. Set on about 2.2 acres, it was the state's largest million-dollar home sold last year.
Among the communities where the vast majority of home sales were $1 million-plus last year: San Marino in Los Angeles County, Los Altos in Santa Clara County, Atherton and Hillsborough in San Mateo County, and Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County.
Newly-built homes accounted for 5.9% of last year's $1 million-plus sales, down from 6.5% in 2009. Condo sales made up 8.0% of the million-dollar category last year, down slightly from 8.3% the year before. Most $1 million-plus condos were sold in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego counties.
The median-sized million-dollar home was 2,840 sq.ft., with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The median price paid per square foot for all million-dollar homes in 2010 was $601, down 0.6% from $605 in 2009. For the overall market, the square-foot median was $164 last year, up 10.1% from $149 in 2009, DataQuick reported.
In 2010, 29.4% of the $1 million-plus buyers paid cash, up from 28.9% in 2009 and the highest for any year since 1994, when 32.3% of $1 million-plus sales were cash. In the over-$5 million category, 62.2% of the purchases were cash. Among those who did finance their purchase last year, the median down payment was 40.1% of the purchase price. The lending institutions most willing to provide mortgage financing for $1 million-plus homes were Wells Fargo(WFC), Bank of America (BAC) andUnion Bank(UNB).
Mirroring a market-wide trend, mortgage defaults eased in many million-dollar neighborhoods in 2010. The number of notices of default filed by lenders fell nearly 32% last year compared with 2009 among defaulting homeowners who had original loan balances of $800,000 or more. Many of those homeowners would have paid at least $1 million for their homes.
Last year saw a 14% increase from 2009 in the number of cases where the homeowner owed at least $1 million (including the outstanding mortgage balance and any fees) at the time the home was lost to foreclosure. The increase reflects higher mortgage default levels back in 2009, which translated into more foreclosures in 2010.
There are about 8.6 million houses and condos in California. Of those, 233,006 are assessed for a million dollars or more by county assessor offices, down 3.5% from 241,456 in 2009, DataQuick reported.
California ZIP codes ranked by 2010 $1 million-plus sales:
Zip Community Sales High Price
90266 Manhattan Beach 326 $6.30 mill.
94010 Hillsborough 323 $8.25 mill.
90049 Brentwood 289 $14.20 mill.
95014 Cupertino 282 $3.10 mill.
95070 Saratoga 282 $5.00 mill.
90272 Pacific Palisades 263 $26.08 mill.
90210 Beverly Hills 256 $29.82 mill.
92660 Newport Beach 254 $5.46 mill.
94025 Menlo Park 254 $5.30 mill.
92037 La Jolla 252 $10.00 mill.
90274 Rolling Hills Estates 245 $5.50 mill.
92651 Laguna Beach 244 $16.75 mill.
94024 Los Altos 243 $4.75 mill.
94022 Los Altos 218 $6.15 mill.
91302 Calabasas 196 $13.00 mill.
92130 Del Mar 188 $5.10 mill.
92657 Newport Beach 185 $14.50 mill.
94539 Fremont 182 $2.60 mill.
94306 Palo Alto 181 $2.97 mill.
95120 San Jose 179 $3.50 mill.
94941 Mill Valley 170 $5.50 mill.
90265 Malibu 167 $36.97 mill.
92625 Corona Del Mar 166 $34.12 mill.
90275 Rancho Palos Verdes 164 $4.85 mill.
94566 Pleasanton 163 $3.90 mill.