About Rancho Bernardo's Carmel Mountain Ranch

The Cafasso Meatball Company is this fantastic meatball restaurant we had been waiting to try since before Christmas. Well, we finally got a chance to drop by there on our way home last night and boy, was it worth the wait! Located in the same shopping center as the Home Depot in Carmel Mountain Ranch, it’s so convenient to pick up dinner there and take it home. The prices are reasonable and the menu is kid friendly. The meatballs are gigantic and rarely does it happen, but they actually had something for everyone in my family! You see, in my family, I have one daughter that can’t eat beef, and presto, Cafasso makes turkey meatballs, she said they were yummy too, and she loved the spaghetti, too! I have another daughter that needs to eat gluten free. Well, they also have a gluten free meatball, too. So, for all you gluten free eaters, this is an item they will keep on their menu just for you, but you really need to get in there and try them to keep them on the menu!

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I tried the beef and bacon meatball myself, very delicious! I even had a chance to talk to one of the owners, and found out that the roots and recipes of the restaurant come from a restaurant that was opened for 30 years in Huntington Beach. The owner sold that business and retired, but he is teaching his grandson to cook his recipes in the Cafasso kitchen, so his legacy will live on. Whatever you decide, whether you dine in or take out, one of your favorite stops for lunch and dinner will be the Cafasso Meatball Company.

It's that back to school time again, just around the corner, the Poway school district is starting on August 24th. That means this is the month everyone is getting in their last weeks of summer vacations, getting ready and gearing up to shop for school supplies and back to school clothes. The end of summer could also mean that if you've been looking to move into one of San Diego's award winning school districts, you might also be shopping for a home. If that's been the case for you this summer, then you should know where you can look up a particular address to see what school your child maybe attending in the next couple of weeks.

At the same time, if you're new to the area and may be searching for employment with some of our largest employers, you may also be interested in knowing some of the following employment websites:

City of San Diego

Qualcomm

County of San Diego

San Diego Zoo

Sony Corporation

University of California San Diego

Scripps Health

Kaiser Permanente

San Diego State University

And if you're looking in the Northern metro inland corridor, (it includes Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Poway, Sabre Springs and Carmel Mountain) then here is the most recent real estate sales market information for those zip codes. Of course, if you are interested in living a little to the East, South or West of the inland corridor, here are home sales in the Scripps Ranch, Mira Mesa and Carmel Valley areas as well.

Hope you had a great summer and you are all ready to go back to school in San Diego...

There are currently 30 active listings in Carmel Mountain, where the listing with the highest days on the market belongs to an attached home that has been for sale 272 days so far and is priced in a range from $299,888 – $324,888. It happens to be a distressed sale in a gated community with specific showing hours. Hmmm, any wonder why it's still on the market?

Just for comparison sake, the median home in this neighborhood has seasonally adjusted to $449,000 with an average of 1653 square feet in the area statistically, including distressed factors, is showing an average market time of 75 days. Unfortunately, when a home is in distress and is also sitting on the market in the off-season it’s true market value is clouded.

On the brighter side, 19 homes in Carmel Mountain are in pending status. Also on the brighter side, in the distressed category there is a home that was priced at $475,000 which stayed on the market much less days than other distressed homes earlier this year, just for comparison in July from 235 days now down to 132 days, while in pending status, so maybe the short sale process appears to be getting more systematic for some negotiators and lenders.

So, whether a home is a “traditional sale” or if it’s in distress, it seems homes are taking a shorter time to sell and close escrow because the screening process that lenders are using (on the distressed seller’s as well as on the buyer’s end) has been regulated. Compared to before the Wall Street debacle, though, the process still takes more time than it used to, but not as long as when the first wave of distressed homes sold.

Getting back to Carmel Mountain and the rest of the market update…

The good news in the last 3 months, is that 32 listings in the area have sold and the average to higher end homes are getting 97% of their asking price. As for the lower end of the market (homes under $150,000), statistically they are selling at 101% of the listed price in this area, which in dollars, is a couple of thousand over their listed price by a fraction of 1% over, maybe because first time buyer’s are needing closing costs allowance.

If you’ve been shopping for a home in San Diego and have noticed that the lower prices you were hoping for in the impacted areas are in short supply, you’re not imagining that. Regardless, the housing inventory for desirable property will always have more buyer competition, therefore prices will be driven higher by the local demand in the market.

This Sunday, December 5^th, from 9am to 3pm the CMR Street Fair will have a winter theme. How exciting for area residents to start their holiday festivities! There will be about 150 vendor booths, carnival rides in a “kids zone”. Also, in the event there is a free classic car show. Then later in the day, attendees can cast their vote for their favorite vehicle.

New offerings include “Santa Claus” in a booth where he will listen to holiday wishes from children and they can pose for photos with Santa as well. Locals can also help make families in need happier by donating a gift card at the chamber’s booth.

Other new attractions will be a fire safety fair and a cultural area featuring activities and exhibits led by the Rancho Bernardo Historical Society, Sikes Adobe Historic Farmstead and Friends of the Rancho Bernardo High School Library.

There is also going to be a robot from the RBHS science department and several local authors will be available to autograph their books.

For more information, see the website for the Carmel Mountain Ranch Street Fair.

Carmel Mountain is located in San Diego, California and in the I-15 Corridor of the metro inland area. The neighborhoods are in a master planned community that's well located for major shopping, popular restaurants, award winning schools, country club golf course, nearby parks and recreation center, their own public library and easy commuting.

There are currently 41 active listings in Carmel Mountain, where the listing with the highest days on the market belongs to a home that has been for sale 158 days so far and is priced at $599,000. Most might believe it is a short sale, but it is a “regular sale” with words like “price reduced” in front of the remarks section.

Just for comparison sake, a home in the median price range, ($528,000) with an average of 1748 square feet in the area statistically, excluding distressed factors, is showing an average market time of 40 days. Unfortunately, when a seller does not price their home appropriately when it first gets on the market, it can miss it’s chance to be seen by the target buyers entirely and spend months trying to catch up to the correct pricing in successive reductions until new buyers eventually notice it and consider it’s true market value.

On the brighter side, 16 homes in Carmel Mountain are in pending status. Unfortunately, in this category there was a short sale listing on a home that was priced at $399,000 which stayed on the market even longer than the listing above at 235 days, before going into escrow.

So, whether a home is a “regular sale” or if it’s in distress, it seems homes are taking longer to sell and close escrow because the screening process that lenders are using (on the distressed seller’s as well as on the buyer’s end) has swung to the extreme cautious side. Except for the lessons learned by what Wall Street did to the markets, by trading debt for dollars, or in other words, securitizing it…

Nowadays, there are many excuses for slow money movement that no one can really justify, but when in doubt, they almost always default their reasons to the global economy concerns and short money supply of other countries.

Getting back to Carmel Mountain and the rest of the market update…

The good news in the last 3 months, is that 36 listings in the area have sold and the average to higher end homes are getting 98%-109% of their asking price. As for the lower end of the market (homes under $150,000), statistically they are selling at 89% of the listed price in this area, which in dollars, is just $10,000 below their listed price.

If you’ve been shopping for a home in San Diego and have noticed that the prices you were hoping for are disappearing, you’re not imagining that. Regardless, whether you’re considering the distressed part of the market or not, the housing inventory for desirable property in certain areas is still in very short supply.