Amazon Expands into San Diego

by | Sep 17, 2017 | Carmel Valley, Jim's Take on the Market, Local Flavor | 2 comments


This should be a boost to Carmel Valley real estate:

E-commerce giant Amazon is boosting its footprint in San Diego — leasing office space in University City with room for more than 500 employees.

The Seattle-based online retailer confirmed this week that it has signed a lease in the Campus Pointe office park from Alexandria Real Estate Equities, said Sam Kennedy, corporate communications manager at Amazon, in an email response to questions.

Amazon is taking nearly 107,000 square feet at 10300 Campus Point Drive. While Amazon has a small office in Solana Beach, as well as distribution facilities in the region, this is its first major office/engineering presence in the county.

The deal is among the largest expansions of an outside, well-known, tech giant into San Diego – exceeding the 60,000 square feet that Google leased last year for a satellite office.

Google’s decision to set up shop in San Diego was linked in part to its acquisitions of local start-ups, including sensor developer Lumedyne Technologies. Amazon is planting roots without an acquisition.

“Is this part of a larger trend? I think it could be,” said Kevin Carroll, head of Tech San Diego, a software industry trade group. “UC San Diego graduates 10,000 students a year. If you are Google or Amazon, you’re looking at that and saying there is going to be a good local pipeline of talent.”

Link to full story:

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/sd-fi-amazon-utc-20170913-story.html

Statewide Community Infrastructure Program

by | Jul 7, 2017 | Bubbleinfo TV, Builders, Carmel Valley, Jim's Take on the Market, Market Buzz, Mello-Roos | 5 comments

The Statewide Community Infrastructure Program (SCIP) sounds like another name for 30-year Mello-Roos-type bonds whose proceeds are used to pay for things that governments or home builders used to cover.

Here is their intro:

The Mello-Roos at this Carmel Valley new tract is $2,932.90 per year, plus the Statewide Communities Infrastructure Program requires another $4,300 per year (total = $7,232.90 or about $603 per month):

CV Big Bombers

by | Jun 7, 2017 | Bubbleinfo TV, Carmel Valley, Jim's Take on the Market | 3 comments

The 56 new multi-gen homes being built on the east end of Carmel Valley are selling briskly – they’ve sold 35 since they started in October, and they ‘re already releasing the final phase.

Prices start around $1,800,000, with the HOA around $232 per month and the Mello-Roos and ‘other direct levies’ being roughly $603 per month.

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Investors in Carmel Valley?

by | May 2, 2017 | Carmel Valley, Jim's Take on the Market, Real Estate Investing | 5 comments

A reader asked if there has been an influx of investors around Carmel Valley.

Buying an investment property is worth considering.  Money sitting in the bank couldn’t be more idle, and the rents around the 92130 have been averaging $2/sf, which is pretty strong.  We’ve heard that big investor groups have been active around the country – are they making a local push?

I checked the tax records of the 44 homes that have sold over the last 12 months in Pacific Highlands Ranch.  These are primarily the detached homes with small yards selling in the $900,000s near Del Mar Heights Rd. and Carmel Valley Rd.

Of the 44 sales, only three had a mailing address that didn’t match the property address – a good sign that recent buyers have been mostly owner-occupants.  Only two of the 44 paid all-cash too, and there were no corporate or partnership names as buyers either.

The combined HOA/Mello-Roos payments of $500+ per month probably prevent a decent cash flow for rentals that are financed.  I doubt that Pardee or Taylor Morrison are encouraging investor buys either, so there are hurdles that would cause investors to look elsewhere.

But if they aren’t buying resales at the lower end of one of the hottest areas in the county, then their impact on the market elsewhere is probably limited too.

The owner-occupant buyers are willing to pay more money because they seek the additional value of securing a newer home in the best school district to raise their family.  Investors aren’t going to pay more than owner-occupants any time soon.

As much as we’d like to believe that there could be nefarious actions at work to undermine our local real estate market, the more I look at it, the more it seems like we’re enjoying an environment driven by owner-occupants seeking a quality place to live long-term.

Carmel Valley Wrap-Up

by | Nov 29, 2016 | Carmel Valley, Jim's Take on the Market, Listing Agent Practices, Scams, Why You Should List With Jim

2016-11-17-10-31-16

We did open escrow before Thanksgiving on the sale of the two-bedroom  home in Trilogy 2 in Carmel Valley.

The MLS entry had been on Friday morning, with open house scheduled for 12-3 on Saturday and Sunday. The weather was somewhat overcast, it is a gated community, and it was the week before Thanksgiving – how many would attend?

Being the least-expensive detached-home in the whole zip code probably drove the activity, and we had parades of people both days.  By Tuesday, I had received seven written offers!

Here are my notes:

  1. As what usually happens, the first person who came to Saturday’s open house was probably the most-motivated – and made a great offer, though not right away.  I didn’t get any offers until Sunday, which made me think that buyers were either being very diligent about price, and/or strategic about delaying their offer, knowing that we were doing open house on Sunday (it is better to wait until after Sunday’s open house and get a feel for the action).
  2. Not only were the offers rolling in slowly, but they were also very orderly about price – nobody was going much over list, so it was a real horse race.  The comps were a problem, for a number of reasons; a) All three Trilogy neighborhoods use the same street name, Carmel Creek (making them all sound the same), b) some of the comps backed to busy streets, c) there is a 1,409sf, and a 1,410sf model, but they aren’t that similar.  To help buyers sort it out, I produced a simple map:

comps-map

If I had a chance to do it over, for easier reading I would group 1,3,7,8,10 as the more-valid comps, and those with street noise (2,4,5,6,9) as the inferior group.

3. We issued requests to every buyer for their highest-and-best offer, which helps to make it a fair race – the early offerors may not have known how competitive it is, and they deserve a chance to re-bid. Another benefit of requesting highest-and-best offers is that it buys time for other buyers to get in the game. In this case, the winner saw the house on Monday, and made offer right away.

4. I was working the phones all weekend, so once we opened escrow on Tuesday, I thought the action might die down.  But I got another handful of calls from people who saw a rental ad in Craigslist – and it’s not the first time it’s has happened. Somebody took my pro photos and remarks off my listing and created a Craigslist rental ad for $1,975 per month, which is well under market.  It is a scam that has been running for years – the guy on the phone tries to convince people that the rent is so attractive that you won’t mind sending the first and last month’s rent to a faraway address and wait by your mailbox for the keys.  But they never come.

I notified Craigslist immediately, and they are quick to take these scam ads down, but you feel sorry for anyone who gets duped.

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