Let’s start with an administrative note. I would like to start focusing my monthly home price reports exclusively on the “median price per square foot” metric. There are two reasons: the first is that it is a less volatile and more accurate measurement of home prices changes than the plain-vanilla median sale price. The second is that the median sale price is reported upon by multiple sources, not the least of whom is voiceofsandiego.org’s own excessively capable Kelly Bennett. I’d prefer to focus my commentary on an area in which it is not so redundant.
OK, on to the business at hand. By our preferred measure, prices for single family homes and condos both fell in November and are now sporting substantial overall declines.
After a head-fake to the upside in October, the detached homes were smacked down for 2.1 percent in November, bringing the year-over-year price decline to 6.9 percent. Condos were down a comparatively mild .3 percent since October, but they are have now declined a full 8.0 percent since last November.
Since the data series peaked in September 2005, the median price per square foot is down 7.7 percent for single-family homes and down 9.0 percent for condos.
The recent acceleration of the downward price trend (in the face of declining mortgage rates, no less) suggests that the housing correction isn’t over. The fact that San Diego homes are still incredibly overpriced suggests the same.