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Escondido Real Estate Prices Lure Buyers Not Newspapers

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Real Living Lifestyles Real Estate

Here in North County, especially in the inland corridors of communities like Escondido, buyers are resurfacing in large numbers. The reasons are simple…prices have declined significantly and interest rates are really low, and it adds up to more buying power for those in the market for a new home or investment property. You would think the opposite if all you did was read the newspapers. 

Today I got up and read the headline in the business section of the local Sunday paper, headline reading “Real Estate Crisis About To Get Worse”. The story went on and on about how the number of foreclosures are expected to rise and continue to rise throughout 2008. The story continued on two additional pages and the secondary headline on the next page read “Crisis” continued from page one. The author talks about real estate agents being at odds with “analysts”.

Further, I was confused by the quote attributed to their “analyst” that went as follows; “I am more wondering when is this thing going to blow up, and you’re already talking about light at the end of the tunnel”.   Huh? (No, I did not misquote or mistype, this is actually what was printed).   The quote was attributed to “an investor and former real estate broker” (actually still a real estate broker…I looked him up). But just as I was trying to find the meaning of this utterance, I realized what this was; just another opinion from someone who is probably not active in today’s market standing on the sideline barking negative information. Oh yeah, and the newspaper’s attempt to sell more papers.

I’m feeling less and less sorry for my local paper, as they are quickly being put out of their misery by the internet. What was once three sections and maybe 15-20 pages of real estate advertisements has shrunk to practically nothing. Why? It’s an old school medium that is frantically trying to turn all of their former print advertisers into advertisers on their internet portal. For years and years, many great local real estate brokers paid lots of money for what is essentially “presence” advertising in local papers, and are now being assaulted on an almost daily basis with three month old news and random predictions.

Next month, the National Association of Realtors2008 Internet vs. Traditional Buyer Survey” will come out and it is expected to show that over 80% of us use the internet to help us with the search for real estate and related information. Listing aggregation websites like Trulia are seeing huge growth in their number of monthly users. 

We’ve all determined that putting our listings online where we can display dozens of photos, virtual tours, satellite images, school information, walkscores along with just about anything else you can think of that runs 24/7 all over the world at a fraction of the cost…is more valuable than one picture (sometimes blurry) and very small for a one day run with a declining readership in a limited area.

Today I helped my wife (who is a local Escondido Realtor) hold an open house in Brookside.  We had over twenty five people show up for it, and by the way she did not advertise it in the local fishwrap.  We met several nice people, including three different couples looking to buy in Brookside since prices have come down and made it an incredible value.  One couple owns another home in Vista that they intend to keep as an investment property, and move into the Escondido home.

The market is the market.  And today’s buyer has an incredible opportunity.  Prices have dropped significantly and interest rates are still at historic lows.  Bank owned homes that need to disappear from their books are selling like wildfire, some with multiple offers over asking price, and many to investor buyers who know San Diego County real estate will rebound.

If you you’re a doom and gloomer, read the newspaper.  If you want relevant information, talk to a local Realtor and mortgage loan representative.   Talk to your CPA and invest for the long run.  Like that guy on the radio says, “and now you know, the rest of the story”.

Read our other blog at http://www.HotOnSanDiego.com/

 

Comments (1)

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Feb 15, 2009 07:32 AM
#1