Mark Mills - Downtown San Diego Condo Expert

Everyone condo shopper in San Diego wants their new condo to have a view, that’s a given, but what type of view is considered the best view? To most people a view of the San Diego bay (water view) is ideal with a city view a distant second place. One thing savvy buyers also take into consideration is the possibility of the view being blocked in the future. There are various types of water views and city views and the demand for the various views may surprise you.

First lets explore the water views. Some water views are limited to the San Diego Bay, while others if high enough will also have a view of the Pacific Ocean. Depending on where the building is in downtown San Diego, your view will vary dramatically depending on which floor you are on. If for example you are in the Marina District facing South, you will need to be on the 10th floor or higher to have a view of the water over the convention center. The buildings in the Marina District this applies to are the Horizons condos, Pinnacle condos, Cityfront Terrace condos, Renaissance condos and the Harbor Club condos.

In the Marina District and Columbia District buildings facing West these all have unobstructed water views now from anything but the lowest floors. However, that western water view will change dramatically over the next 10 years. The buildings that will be affected include, Pinnacle, Renaissance, Park Place, Electra, Grande Bayside condos. The western waterfront will undergo a massive construction project that will include several hotels, office buildings, etc that will obstruct the current unobstructed water views. However, there will still be view corridors as there currently are regarding the Southern water view (between the four hotels along the water). So in the end the western water views will be similar to the current southern water views.

What about city views? Almost every high rise condo building in downtown San Diego that has a great water view will also have great city views looking east. Be careful when picking out a unit as some buildings are so close that your view is obstructed by the building across the street. These are the hardest units to sell because everyone looking in a high rise building wants a great view so the discount you see on the price today relative to the prime view units will also be experienced when you go to sell the unit.

This leads me to the last category, what about buildings with both a great water view and a great city view. In choosing a condo in San Diego that has both views you need to be very careful because these buildings are often located in the middle of the city with the risk of more buildings blocking their water views. Fortunately there are very view lots left to build a high rise condo building on and those have already been spoken for and artist renderings are available for the future building. So there is not much mystery there, perhaps the only mystery is when will it actually get built.

Getting back to naming names, the buildings with the best water and city views from the same unit (not say a west facing unit and an east facing unit, but one unit) are The Mark Condominiums in the East Village. This also has one huge, huge bonus, a view directly in the playing field at Petco Park where the San Diego Padres play baseball. You have to be on roughly the 20th floor & up to get that view into the playing field. Another great choice of water and city views is the Electra condos, primarily the SE corner units.

In summary, here are the best buildings to buy a condo in San Diego if you want a great view in order. This list was written in 2009 but with a long term view out the next 10 years after future construction is built up.
1. The Metropolitan condos (unobstructed views of bay, ocean and city, even low floors).
2. The Mark condos (water, city and ballpark).
3. Bayside condos Unobsructed bay views from even the low floors.
4. Harbor Club condos (unobstructed water views, 10th floor & up).
5. Mi Arbolito condos (built at the highest elevation of all condos, 360 degree views of Balboa Park, Bay, City and Mountains).

No so fast, some are bust other are booming, read below to see who the smartest developers are:

There are several new condo projects that have recently finished construction or are about to by summer of 2009. Its an interesting time to be not only building new condos but it’s a challenging time to sell them. If the developers had only know 3 years ago what the market was going to be like now they might not have built, or more likely would have built a different product than what they built.

Case in point, the developers that built the ultra luxury condos are doing quite well in sales with the more expensive units selling before the less expensive units. These developers include 1700 Investors, BOSA, Douglas Wilson, and Centurion Partners. The buildings they have recently built are Mi Arbolito, Electra, Bayside, The Mark and Sapphire Tower, all luxury high rise condos in downtown San Diego.

Case in point, the developers that built the ultra luxury condos in San Diego are doing quite well in sales with the more expensive units selling before the less expensive units. These developers include 1700 Investors, BOSA, Douglas Wilson, and Centurion Partners. The buildings they have recently built are Mi Arbolito condos, Electra condos, Bayside condos The Mark condos and Sapphire Tower, all luxury high rise buildings in downtown San Diego.

There are two new developments in San Diego’s downtown that are selling their condos at a slower pace than the luxury condos mentioned above. These developers and projects are Point of View with Vantage Pointe condos and Centurion Partners with Smart Corner. There are two reasons these condos are not selling as fast as the others listed above. Reason number one, location, after all location is the foundation of all real estate desirability/demand. Reason number two, quality, these buildings are not luxury condos they are more say middle of the road quality speaking directly about the finishes, amenities, etc.

These two buildings, Vantage Pointe and Smart Corner are built in the Core neighborhood of downtown San Diego. For those of you new to the housing market in downtown San Diego, the Core has always been the least desirable neighborhood and so far show no signs of giving up this unwelcome honor. For the first time since the real estate market boom of this decade, these developers are also now offering their unsold units for rent. It appears they do not want to lower the prices any more and want to hold on to them until San Diego’s condo inventory dries up some. During that time they will have some cash coming in and who knows once mortgages become easier to obtain again the tenants may even want to purchase the condo.

There is a lesson for developers here and a message for buyers as well. The developers should learn from observation that the residents of downtown San Diego have an insatiable appetite for high end luxury view condos. Condo shoppers should note that there are only two available lots to build luxury high rise condos with prime views left in downtown San Diego. You may wait on those, which you can expect to pay about $1,250/sf on average for or you can take advantage of today’s soft market to grab a condos before inventory tightens up and prices firm up. Prices today are about $800/sf on average for the best of buildings, excluding some penthouse only style buildings like The Metropolitan condos

As we all know the economy is in the tank. The housing industry is suffering from never before seen loses. The pain is not spread evenly throughout the nations real estate markets. Some cities with more subprime loans have taken more of a hit in pricing than your more traditional cities. This real estate crisis has presented many opportunities for buyers who never thought they could afford to own a home.

If you’re a cash buyer, meaning you can buy a home or condo with out having to get a mortgage there are some special situations that ONLY you can take advantage of and get a bigger discount than a buyer who needs a mortgage. Let me explain in detail how to purchase one of these condos either as an investment or your own actual home.

Many condos in downtown San Diego and other cities were built in the past six year real estate boom. Many of these condos were purchased by investors, often before construction was completed. A significant number of these investors were purchasing these condos with either 100% financing, meaning no down payment, or they were using the option ARM mortgage which have recently reset to much higher interest rates. A lot of these condos sold in the past six years are now worth less than what the original owners paid, sometimes as much as 50% less.

As you may have heard on the news, a lot of these investors are walking away from their condos and giving them back to the bank. When this happens the bank ends up owning the condo. There is a critical period between the time an owner/investors decides to give up the condo and stop paying the mortgage AND the HOA fees. Several months go by with the HOA not collecting this owners monthly HOA payment. In a lot of these newer condo buildings, several investors stopped paying their HOA fees. Over time, these non-payments have resulted an overall high percentage of HOA delinquencies that lenders will no longer loan on the building. The maximum default rate that most lenders will allow is 15%, when the delinquency rate is over that no one can get a mortgage on a condo in the building.

This creates an exceptional opportunity for the cash buyer because you have very little competition from other buyers. Because few buyers can buy in the building prices drop even further, increasing the opportunity for the cash buyer. If you’re a cash buyer ask your Realtor to focus on condo buildings built in the past few years that had a high percentage of investors as original buyers. These will have the best values for those cash buyers that can actually close a deal in the building.

Another factor that may double your chances of not competing against buyers getting a mortgage is if the building also has a low owner occupancy percentage. Most banks wont lend on building with less than 50% owner occupancy. If a lot of units in the building are still owned by investors this may be keeping buyers away because of financing issues.

Today’s condo cash buyers have unprecedented opportunities now in the market place. These opportunities will not last too long, once banks foreclose on the owners/investors the bank is responsible for paying the HOA and they usually pay it. So buyers looking to invest in condos get moving for one in a lifetime opportunities that only you can take advantage of.

Condo shoppers now have a new tool to help them decide between the multitude of choices available to them in San Diego. The MLS is on almost every real estate website. Condo shoppers can and do spend hours looking through the over 600 choices available to them regarding downtown condos.

So with so many choices, often with in the buyers’ price range, a little help deciding which a better value is would be a great benefit. Who is not looking for a deal these days? Well what exactly is a deal is the question each shopper has to answer. After a few trips out with a real estate agent, one quickly realizes that price alone does not determine a great value.

To get a great value you need the right mix of quality and price, preferably as high quality as one can get for a given, preferably low, price. Now with the ”Condo Comparison” chart now available at www.LiveAtTheTop.com, condo shoppers can see the quality of a buildings average unit matched up against the average selling price per square foot. Sounds technical, but its all comes together when looking at the chart. Value shoppers want to look for condos in the lower right quadrant of the chart. In other words go out to the right to find the best quality condo, then go down the chart till you hit your price budget and that condo building is where you should ask your Realtor to take you.

Sapphire Tower condos were recently completed in the winter of 2008/9 to rave reviews from real estate brokers and new buyers alike. Sapphire Tower is for people who want the advantages of high rise living with the feeling of a smaller boutique building. Sapphire Towers is 33 stories tall but only has 97 individual units. Fewer units than every other high rise I can think of in downtown San Diego.

As of this writing in winter 2008/9, Sapphire Tower is 50% sold, just prior to being ready for occupancy. Now that potential buyers can actually go inside the building and see model units and units available for sale, I expect the sales volume to pick up speed. New buyers to Sapphire Tower can expect to see asking prices in the range of $500,000 - $3,000,000.

The design of Sapphire Tower consist of three different series of luxury living. The Cosmopolitan Series covers floors 5-7 and has six condos per floor. The Cosmopolitan series floor plans range from 505 – 1,772 square feet. Next up is the Sapphire Series, covering floors 8-23, with four condos per floor. The Sapphire series floor plans range from 904 – 1,949 square feet. At the top is the Penthouse Series, covering floors 24-32, this series only has two condos per floor. The Penthouse series floor plans range from 2,823 – 2,981 square feet. There is a very special penthouse encompassing the entire top floor (33rd), which is just over 5,000 square feet. The name of this special unit is the La Jolla Penthouse. The penthouse units have their own private elevator stop directly into their unit, no common hallway.

Amenities at the Sapphire Tower condos include: Pool, spa, dry sauna (his & hers) sun deck, gym, movie/meeting room, 24hr security/lobby attendant.

The views at Sapphire Towers are amazing, but not panoramic. The views are what I would call corridor views. The building is located one block back from the “residential front row”. Therefore, the views west to the bay are between two other high rise buildings, the Grande condos and Bayside condos. In addition to those buildings there will be several buildings (hotels, office buildings, etc) built to the SW on the other side of Pacific Highway that may block the view from some of the units with SW views. Note most units have 10 foot floor to ceiling glass panels to enjoy the views through.

Also worth noting is that directly north of Sapphire Tower is a vacant parking lot that a developer has plans to build a high rise residential condo tower on taking out the now almost 180 degree view North.

If your shopping for a special condo in downtown San Diego consider Sapphire Tower for its high quality finishes, large floor plans, views, and boutique styling.

Sapphire Tower Condos - photos