Downtown San Diego Luxury Condo Landscape Changing

Over the next few weeks, the last of a decade long building spree of Luxury Condos in Downtown San Diego will end. Bayside Condos has only 4 remaining residences to sell.

How big was the impact of  Bayside Condos Downtown San Diego?   The qualitative answer to the question is “HUGE!”  In today’s blog, we’ll quantify the impact of Bayside on the Downtown San Diego Condo market, and look at the present and future of Bayside Condos.

Over the past decade, Bosa Development has built eight highrise Downtown San Diego Condominium buildings.  Bayside is the last of these.  They began selling in 2007, which of course preceded the real estate crash by a year.  Other Downtown Condo projects were put on hold, were forced to restructure capital repeatedly (in and out of bankruptcy) and suffered numerous other setbacks. 

Bayside (and Bosa Development) moved forward.  In spite of the recession or any other financial obstacles, residents began moving in to Bayside in 2009.   Bayside added 232 residences to the Downtown San Diego Luxury Condo market.  Today, all but 4 have been sold. 

Bayside Sales over the last two years

In 2010, 108 condos were sold at Bayside.  Among all Downtown San Diego Condos sold in the year, this represented slightly more than 9% (1,120 total sold).  Quite remarkable for one building.  The Average selling price was $798,211, while the average selling price of all San Diego Downtown Condos was $450,391.

In 2011, the sales pace at Bayside continued–even as available new construction diminished.  January through June 44 homes closed.  However, for the first time there were six resales included among these.  The average sale price of these resales is $829,166.

In the following section, we will look at the current listings in The Grande at Santa Fe Depot.  As a point of comparison, The Grande had a total of 52 sales in the same 18 month time frame referred to above.  The average sale price for these purchases was $718,000.

What’s on the Downtown San Diego Condo Horizon? 

The first answer is that there will be no new construction condos in the next few years.  If a project were presently financed and permitted, it would still be 3 years until occupancy.  No plans are in place today for a start up.  Clearly, Bayside Condos are already effecting the resale market. 

In the following tables, current listings at Bayside and The Grande are detailed.  The Grande is located one block from Bayside, and opened in 2005-2006.  They are comparable in quality and location.  They share a full list of amenities.  Views will vary greatly among these Condos.  

OK, so what does all of this mean?

It for sure means that looking for a luxury Downtown San Diego Condo includes analyzing resales at Bayside.  Initially, these included owners who had purchased at Bayside and sold near their purchase price–or perhaps at a loss.  But looking at recent sales, there are owners who have actually exceeded their purchase price significantly.  #2802 was originally purchased from Bosa in 12/09 for $1,075,000.  It was a recent resale, closing in May, at $1,225,000.

In general, we see higher prices and costs per square foot at Bayside than the Grande.  There are some very desirable properties to be looked at in each.  The market will clearly dictate at what prices these luxury condos sell.  Please, take a moment to look at a couple of comparable pairings from current listings:

Grande #1903 or Bayside # 1702

Grande #2801 or Bayside #2901

Your comments regarding Bayside and other San Diego Luxury Condos will be greatly appreciated.  Please, take a moment to respond to this blog.  If you have thoughts about the Bayside/Grande pairings above, we’ll share those.  The Welcome to San Diego team is privileged to share America’s Finest City with our clients.

Let’s start a conversation about San Diego Real Estate…