In the midst of another epic San Diego summer, I was pleasantly surprised to read about the median price of housing in San Diego rising for the 3rd consecutive month.  Sales volume is up, buyers are making offers, my agents are busy, summer living must be good!  Now as the chart above shows it is a blip on the radar...but it's a positive blip! 

What happens when the wave of new foreclosures and short sales hits the market is anyone's guess, but it would not be a stretch to think prices will drop and we will see even higher levels of activity as buyers jump head first into the frenzy.  Already I am hearing from my nearly 300 agents in California that the "inventory is stale".  Meaning the homes currently for sale have been out there for awhile and many have multiple offers...in other words all the good ones are taken!

The 29th annual U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition will be held Saturday and Sunday on Seacoast Drive at Imperial Beach. More than 140 vendors are expected to line the main drag for the street fair from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The sandcastle competition, which will feature about 40 teams, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday and castles will be on display until 4 p.m. Event organizers said they expect the usual turnout again this year, which is about 300,000 people throughout the weekend.

We know it's bright and sunny in San Diego and now we also know that America's Finest City leads the state in the number of residential solar installations.  According to the San Diego Union, the city has 2,262 solar roofs that together can generate 19.4 megawatts of electricity - roughly equivalent to the power used by 12,000 homes. San Diego also has a special loan program, anticipated to launch this fall, that homeowners can tap into that allows them to repay the cost of adding solar over 20 years via their annual property tax payments. San Diego also offers a fast track permitting process so homeowners can have solar added quickly.  

Lastly, I wanted to mention our sister company, LendingTree, has launched a new web site and it is AWESOME!  LendingTree has always been about empowering consumers and the new site offers so many ways for you to take control of your lending options.  The new site offers a look at current mortgage rates, the great Look B4U Lock feature that let's you enter a current mortgage offer and compare to other lenders in real time, and a new screenshot showing the most recent offers made to consumers from a LendingTree partner.  Additionally you can get answers via the Ask the Tree Q & A section and tap into other tools like credit scores, calculators, loan definitions, and lender ratings and reviews. It's so easy to "branch" out to our other sister sites like RealEstate.com, Thrive, InsuranceTree, and Done Right as well.  Don't forget to follow LendingTree on Twitter and be the first to catch our new commercial this coming Friday.