Beachfront Seacoast Drive Home Prices Rise Slightly in 2011

Home and condominium sale prices on Seacoast Drive rose four percent in 2011, for an average selling price of $352,000, according to the Sandicor Multiple Listing Service. 

The gap between listing and selling prices decreased this year. Through November 2011, the average selling price was $338,000, for a difference between listing and selling prices of less than $15,000.

In 2010 the average listing price for a home on Seacoast Drive was $525,000, while the average selling price was nearly $200,000 less.

Beachfront property on Seacoast Drive currently makes up about 35 percent of the active Imperial Beach housing market, or 19 of 55 homes being sold. 

A home that is active on the market is defined as a home that is placed on the market, and has yet to receive an offer.

Brian McCray, a real estate agent with on Seacoast Drive, believes the reason for the high number of homes for sale on the beach has to do with a lack of tourism.

“Many of the homes on Seacoast are vacation homes or second homes,” McCray said, adding that many homeowners were forced to put their vacation home or second home on the market because they couldn’t rent them out this summer.

McCray said while Arizonans are starting to feel the pinch of the economy, he believes San Diego politicians have affected the housing market for Imperial Beach and the rest of San Diego County.

“Lots of our tourists come from Arizona,” McCray said. “They stopped coming to San Diego when our political officials boycotted their immigration law.”

Though Imperial Beach offers the rare experience of homes directly on the beach, some Seacoast Drive real estate has been on the market for at least two years, McCray said.

That is because some properties are still trying to sell at pre-recession prices, he said.

Clayton Madisen, a realtor with , said he has seen home prices on Seacoast Drive properties drop between 20 to 25 percent within the past year.

Madisen said another reason why there are so many homes up for sale on Seacoast Drive is because homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages. Seven of 10 short sales currently being negotiated in Imperial Beach are on Seacoast Drive.

Madisen described the housing market as “depressed,” but not in a major crisis.

“I’ve seen it a lot worse in the 1980s,” Madisen said. "Back then, basically what you had is an abundant amount of properties on the market and interest rates were just sky high.”