Downtown San Diego Road to Recovery
Broadway and Pacific
After new condo construction and sales explosion from 2002 to 2006, Downtown San Diego’s condo market has seen mass foreclosures and prices nearly cut in half after the housing market collapsed in 2007.
Median price per square foot peaked at $585 during the first quarter of 2005 before hitting the bottom at $326 per Sqft during the third quarter of 2011. Condo prices were falling by double digit percentages year after year for eight straight quarters starting at the fourth quarter of 2007.
Condo buildings that were under construction or under planning during the market collapse, were either converted to rentals or builders scrapped their plan. Nearly 8,300 condo units were completed in downtown from 2001 to 2009 with the last been Bayside built by Bosa Development. Downtown San Diego hasn’t seen a new condo building completed ever since.
Is the Downtown condo marker recovery here?
Since condo prices hit bottom two years ago, prices for Downtown San Diego condos for sale have steadily gone up due to growing demand and limited inventory.
In September buyers of resale condos in Downtown paid a median $445 per square foot in Downtown which is nearly 19% more than what they paid a year ago according to data provided by DataQuick.
Higher prices across downtown have made builders see that new construction in Downtown may be attractive again. Although builders don’t see a similar explosion as that of 2002 to 2006 due to tougher mortgage lending standards, this double digit median sales price rise (year over year) for five straight quarters has made them optimistic.
So optimistic in fact, that Bosa Development has announced plans of breaking ground early next year on a 41-story, 221 unit condo high rise at the corner of Broadway and Pacific. This project was approved by city planners last year and is currently it its final stages of obtaining permits.
This Bosa new construction luxury high rise at Broadway and Pacific will be the first to be completed since 2009 and is expected to go on sale in 2016 with prices rumored to be starting at $700,000.
