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San Diego County, California

Single-family vs. condo trends, market pressure signals, and 5-year price history. Source: Redfin.

Median Sale Price
$915,000
+25.8% YoY
Active Inventory
4,945
Days on Market
27 days
Price Drops
28.0%

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)
Single-Family Median
$1,075,000
+2.4% YoY
Condo / Co-op Median
$625,000
-2.3% YoY
SFR vs. Condo YoY Gap
+4.7%
SFR outperforming condos
DOM: SFR vs. Condo
21d / 39d
SFR / Condo

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin
Months of Supply
2.4 mo
Seller market

Inventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.

Sale-to-List Ratio
99.6%
At asking

Median closing price ÷ original list price. Above 100% = homes routinely closing above asking.

% Sold Above List
37%
Mixed

Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.

What does your sqft target cost in San Diego County, California?

$593/sqft median (Redfin)
+$0 adj
+$0 adj
optional
Estimated price
$1,186,671
Above median (+30% vs median)
Region median
$915,000
all homes
Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?
$600,000
≈ 1,011 sqft
$1,200,000
≈ 2,022 sqft
$2,000,000
≈ 3,371 sqft
$5,000,000
≈ 8,427 sqft

Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.

Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested

15-yr rolling history · S&P 500
Property type:
Upfront capital committed (both paths): $210K = 20% down + 3% closing on a $915K home
BUY + OWN
Median ending wealth $803K $491K real
Net gain on $210K upfront: $593K
Range: $803K → $803K
Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $915K asset comes from the 20% down.
RENT + INVEST
Median ending portfolio $2.16M $1.59M real
Net gain on $766K contributed: $1.39M
Range: $1.00M → $5.47M
Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $766K total.
Median wealth delta: $1.35M in favor of RENT + INVEST
What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
WindowBuy wealthBuy gainRent wealthRent gainWealth delta
2011–2025$803K$593K$3.13M$2.36M$2.33M rent
2010–2024$803K$593K$3.19M$2.43M$2.39M rent
2009–2023$803K$593K$3.05M$2.29M$2.25M rent
2008–2022$803K$593K$2.16M$1.40M$1.36M rent
2007–2021$803K$593K$2.81M$2.04M$2.00M rent
2006–2020$803K$593K$2.40M$1.63M$1.59M rent
2005–2019$803K$593K$2.16M$1.39M$1.35M rent
2004–2018$803K$593K$1.78M$1.01M$973K rent

Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).

Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.

Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.

This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.

Market Pressure Signals

Derived from Redfin trend
Inventory vs. Long-Term Avg
+20.7%
surplus — buyer leverage
DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg
-12.4%
currently 27 days
Long-Term Avg Inventory
4,097
Long-Term Avg DOM
31 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency
State HPI YoY
+1.2%
flat — pressure building
State HPI vs. Peak
0.0%
at or near peak peak 2025-10-01
National Mortgage Delinquency
1.89%
benchmark — 2026-01-01 county-grain delinquency requires paid data

State-grain HPI YoY + drawdown from peak is the cleanest free price-stress proxy. The national delinquency rate gives the macro mortgage-stress backdrop. True county-level mortgage delinquency lives in paid datasets (MBA NDS, CoreLogic LP).

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income
Value / Income
8.9×
severely overvalued
Median Household Income
$102,285
Census ACS B19013

Historically affordable markets sit at 3–4× income; over 5× is stretched, over 6× is severely overvalued. Lower ratios point to bargain opportunities.

Housing Stock & Owners

Census ACS 5-year (B19013, B01003, B25002, B25003, B25034, B25007)
Population
3,282,782
total residents
Total Housing Units
1,240,607
all units, occupied + vacant
Vacancy Rate
6.5%
tight
Homeownership Rate
54.5%
of occupied units owner-occupied
Boomer Owners (65+)
18.2%
of homeowner households
Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)
4.5%
of homeowner households
Pre-1949 Housing Stock
7.2%
structures built before 1949

When boomer-owner share is high, expect more inventory hitting the market over the next decade as homes transition. High vacancy + high old-stock often signals deferred-maintenance markets where buyers can negotiate.

Net Migration (IRS Tax Returns)

IRS Statistics of Income — Migration Data
Net Migration
-15,307
losing people (2022–2023)
Inbound Returns
61,648
95,628 people moved in
Outbound Returns
66,155
110,935 people moved out
Net Returns
-4,507
household-filer basis

Top 5 Origins (where movers came from)

  1. Los Angeles, California — 6,449 returns
  2. Riverside, California — 5,038 returns
  3. Orange, California — 4,006 returns
  4. San Bernardino, California — 1,719 returns
  5. Maricopa, Arizona — 1,706 returns

Top 5 Destinations (where movers went)

  1. Riverside, California — 6,563 returns
  2. Los Angeles, California — 4,999 returns
  3. Orange, California — 3,258 returns
  4. Maricopa, Arizona — 2,410 returns
  5. Clark, Nevada — 1,808 returns

IRS Statistics of Income tracks county-to-county migration via tax-return change-of-address. Net migration uses the exemption count (a proxy for people, including dependents). True net flow can lag by 1–2 years vs. real-time movements.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)
Inbound Movers (1 yr)
161,764
4.98% of pop. — moved here from outside the county
From Other States
76,159
2.35% of pop. — interstate inbound
From Abroad
25,571
moved into the county from outside the U.S.
Same House 1 Year Ago
87%
stable residents

Census ACS asks where people lived 1 year ago, so this counts inbound movers but does not show outbound — true net migration would require IRS SOI parsing.

Trends

Up to 5 years of monthly data

Median Sale Price

Trailing 12 months

Active Inventory

Trailing 12 months

Days on Market

Trailing 12 months

Looking for state-level data? See California statewide stats →

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