Jennifer Beaudette

As a current buyer/seller, I think I can see both sides of the field fairly equally. I know when sellers are over-glorifying their homes, and I think most other buyers see through the creative adjective use as well. I think it may behoove most sellers to use a thesaurus before using some of these trite descriptives.

Cozy: The home is SMALL. Good luck getting your couch through the doorway, and if you get it in it will probably look oversized in the living/dining nook. Maybe that's why the past owners had the TV mounted on the wall and minimalist furniture. Often used to describe coastal cabins/cottages.

Charming: Aw, look at this house. It has the original laminate tile and Grandma's wallpaper still lines the walls. Charming is code for outdated, often found inland around Clairemont or East County. This is not to be confused with a "fixer upper" because the owner intentionally kept (or created) the rose-motif master bathroom and they're probably very proud of that bathroom.

Convenient location: Hooray, you'll be close to all major freeways, the grocery store, and the library. That means your home is situated in the cross-hairs of a busy intersection and quiet time is limited to sleepy time. Grand or Garnet Avenue, Mission Bay Drive, Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, etc. Every San Diego neighborhood has one of these locations. This also applies when the home is listed as being "in the heart of (any neighborhood)" or "close to everything".

Great deal: The seller is desperate to sell this overpriced home which they bought during the housing boom. In San Diego, this primarily refers to downtown condos which are easily listed at 25-50% off their previous purchase price.

Great opportunity: There's a home for sale in an area in which there is no more room to build anything. Thus, you have to buy something once it's listed because you can't create an ocean next to your current inland home. The "great opportunity" home is quite different from the "great deal" home because the former is seemingly overpriced in all aspects EXCEPT the location. Someone will buy a 500 square foot studio right next to Mission Bay for $500,000 because it's waterfront and it's the only one for sale. If it's the only one it must be a fantastic opportunity!

Investment property: Yeah, we're selling this home for pretty cheap. You may wonder why it's so cheap...and why is it labeled as an investment property? Well, you'd never want to live here. The neighbors are really loud, the place hasn't been updated since the 1980's, and the neighborhood may be a little sketchy. You can afford to buy this place, but you'd rather have your kids go to the school three towns over. This dubious tag is normally relegated to condominiums with excessive amenities that look good on paper, but no working person honestly has time to enjoy...yet renters LOVE them. "Ooh, tennis courts, parking valet, four pools and jacuzzis, an arcade room AND a billiard room? I'd love to live there!"

Must see: Wait...what else must I see if you took 10 pictures of a 1/1? Is there a secret room that you're not allowed to photograph? Does your camera have the ability to make things look SMALLER when photographed, as opposed to adding 10 pounds? Was it pouring rain in San Diego the day you took the picture of the view out the window overlooking the parking lot? To be honest, I'm not sure what this one means, but it sounds like it means a whole lotta nuthin'.

Quaint: Ah, there are no more descriptives left to describe a feature of this caliber. Any over-zealous design remnants of decades past are normally referred to as "quaint" and left for the future buyer to remove at their discretion, unless the home is being marketed as a "fixer upper"; then it can be assumed the buyer will certainly remove said element. Often used to describe homes in less affluent areas of Normal Heights or North Park that still contain green tile kitchens and excessive built-in shelving. Potential buyers are left scratching their heads and wondering what they just witnessed.

Feel free to add any of your own creative adjectives to the list!

I try to keep myself up to date on the local real estate stats, for myself that's San Diego county. We're all aware of the bubble that previously encompassed the city, allowing developers to create luxury condominiums where there wasn't a need, much less a justification for "so little for so much". I'm not saying the bubble was due entirely to excessive downtown building, but there is a glut of those overpriced properties on the market.

Which brings me to my question: Have we really hit bottom, or just plateaued?

I ask this because any number of experts will give you any number of answers. We're past bottom, we're at the bottom, the worst is yet to come, etc. For a lot of us, we've pledged to make 2009 our best year ever, so hopefully the toughest times have passed.

I just saw these numbers on Yahoo, which looked pretty interesting considering the economic times we're supposedly in:

Listing Type Number Median Price Price Change from Dec

Homes for Sale 3,453 $449,888 +0.2%

New Homes 19 $709,331 0.0%

Foreclosures 5,404 $343,710 -0.1%

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but I've seen a consistent drop in home prices all over San Diego for months. Are sellers gaining confidence and hoping people are ready to buy? Or are they tired of competing with the more affordable short sales and foreclosures? Maybe the majority of home sellers in San Diego simultaneously upgraded their homes, resulting in the increase?

I guess I'll never really know until this recession has passed...then we can analyze what has happened, instead of what's currently happening.

I was reading the local news and came across this article: Scam Artists Target Foreclosure Victims. The underlying message of the article is great - if you want to scare homeowners out of getting help during their time of need. Be careful who you talk to, who you do business with, watch out for mail from strangers...as someone who does send out mailers, I'm quite concerned about how this will affect my business. I know all it takes is a few bad seeds to taint the image of legitimate businesspeople (or humanity), and I can't believe that some people will take advantage of people when they're in dire need of HELP.

Is the media crying wolf? Or is this a real pandemic facing homeowners who are facing foreclosure? Time will tell. For the meantime, I'll keep sending my mailers.

1970's: House sales remained stable during recession

1980's: House sales plummet during recession

1990's: House sales decrease during recession

Early 2000's: House sales INCREASE during recession

Now: Depends on the state you live in? Cost of living? Sunshine tax?

I was reading this article on MarketWatch earlier today regarding the market fluctuations/recessions and micro-markets within the United States. The entire country is involved in this recession, yet Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Florida, and Virginia saw significant increases in sales. Hmm...I can only speak for CA, FL, and NV when I say that the home prices there have been artifically inflated for quite a while, so I understand why sales would increase. The prices here in San Diego aren't reasonable yet, but they have come down. Florida and Nevada have both undergone extreme amounts of home construction when I last visited, perhaps the supply is greater than the demand.

So what was going on in Idaho and Virginia? I'm not familiar with those markets, and I'm curious why they would also see such a large spike in sales during these troubling times.