Economy

Looking Ahead At San Diego's Housing Market

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 31, 2009 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Looking Ahead At San Diego's Housing Market

San Diego is one of the few housing markets nationwide that has seen some price increases in recent months. But experts are cautious about what next year may bring.

Home sales in San Diego are on the rise. Russ Valone, of Marketpointe Realty Advisors in San Diego, says the resale housing market increased about 8 percent in the first 11 months of this year. Though new home sales countywide were way down from market highs, Valone says they did double from the beginning to the end of 2009.

“A lot of people feel that we hit the bottom and that the slide in prices has seemed to stabilize and in some instances and started to recover," Valone said. "Having said that, it will be a long time, if ever, before we see our God given right to 23 percent annual appreciation again.”

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Valone says the shrinking housing inventory could increase sales. On the other hand, rising interest rates next year could put a damper on home buying activity.

Valone says another round of foreclosures could threaten to destabilize rising prices. He hopes banks will moderate that effect by agreeing to restructure more loans.

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Economy Housing

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.