California shoppers last year aggressively used their plastic to keep on shopping.Golden State credit card balances at the end of 2023 were equal to $4,450 per resident, says the New York Fed. That’s the 11th-highest card usage among the states.But to my trusty spreadsheet, it’s the jump in the bala

Leaders of San Diego County’s public transit system balked at a proposal recently that would have potentially reduced its estimated $80 million annual budget deficit.The board of the Metropolitan Transit System rejected a proposal that would have cracked down on fare jumpers on the San Diego Trolley

A new seven-story hotel that will include a number of extended-stay guestrooms will soon be rising in Mission Valley adjacent to a longstanding Marriott where tennis courts once operated.The 148-room property on Rio San Diego Drive will be Marriott’s first Element by Westin-branded hotel in San Dieg

San Diego County built more housing in 2023 than it did in any of the past 17 years.Last year, 11,673 building permits were pulled across the county, a 21 percent increase from 2022, said the Construction Industry Research Board. The majority of residential construction was in multifamily buildings,

San Diego’s negotiations with the Midway Rising development team selected to remake the city’s sports arena real estate in the Midway District are said to be progressing, but final consideration of a development deal will likely get pushed to early 2025.Monday, San Diego City Council members receive

San Diego had the fastest rising home prices in the nation for a sixth month, but New York is nipping at its heels.The San Diego metropolitan area’s annual home price increased 10.3 percent annually in April, according to the S&P Case-Shiller Indices report released Tuesday. It was followed by New Y

Q: We have a dispute with our HOA board and tried to inform those present during open meeting time and were not allowed to speak. We were told this was not on the agenda and this is private. Is it not our right to disclose what we do not want kept private?— C.W., VistaQ: Last night I attended a boar

Growing the share of homeownership – in California or across the nation – remains a challenge with intensely unaffordable housing.Yes, California’s homeownership rate hit a 13-year high last year — if you ignore the data-challenged, pandemic-twisted 2020 result.My trusty spreadsheet reviewed annual

There’s the DIY of assembling that Ikea bookcase, and then there’s the DIY of building an entire house. In both cases, it helps if you are an architect with an enthusiastic partner, both possessed of resourcefulness and skill, like Joe and Marie Michell, who built this of-the-moment Post and Beam in

Things aren’t looking great for downtown’s 1.7 million-square-foot Research and Development District from San Diego-based life science real estate developer IQHQ.A Citi analyst, writing in a research note to the project’s publicly traded lender Bank OZK, believes the district is 0 percent leased and

San Diego rents are down but a renter’s fortune depends heavily on where they are living in the county.The median monthly rent was $2,370 for a one-bedroom in the city of San Diego in May, said real estate website Zumper, down 1.3 percent in a year. That put America’s Finest City as the eighth most

Buzz: Home price appreciation is projected to slow in California and 35 other states in the next 12 months.Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the April edition of CoreLogic’s state-by-state price indexes, which look 12 months ahead and 12 months back.Look aheadLet’s start with the forecast. If i

One in a series of columns on boards, homeowners, managers, vendors and HOA lawyers.Being an HOA attorney is not simply a job. Being trusted to guide communities is an honor and a sacred obligation.Clients need answers, not just options. It is helpful to explain the benefits and drawbacks of the var

A recently-completed collaboration between architect/developer David Maman and interior designer Leslie Close of Close Design, this home on Brentwood’s Arbutus Drive represents the best in “quiet luxury”—a term that’s overused but still evocative. Absolutely up to the moment in amenities, the proper

 The cost of homebuying is so insane that San Diego County’s sales are running at the slowest pace in records dating back 37 years.My trusty spreadsheet looked at two-year periods of sales from CoreLogic stats stretching back to 1988 to measure how much the local housing market has chilled. Remember

One in a series of columns on boards, homeowners, managers, vendors and HOA lawyers.The client is the HOA corporation, not the president or any individual director. Make sure you know whether the person instructing you or your staff is authorized to speak on behalf of the HOA.Your contract should st

With a career spanning decades from the 1930s to the 1970s, Robert Byrd built some of L.A.’s most influential homes, working in a very characteristic style that combined a farmhouse aesthetic, heavily timbered and woodsy, with carpenter interior details and extravagant brickwork. Unlike the classic

A Los Angeles-based real estate firm that has spent the past 15 years focused on residential projects is re-entering the retail sector with the purchase of what is said to be an extremely healthy shopping center in Mira Mesa.Thursday, Decron Properties announced that it purchased the 238,747-square-

The long-awaited overhaul of Mira Mesa Community Park will begin this summer, promising to deliver in two years time an aquatic center, a skate park, a renovated recreation building and substantial infrastructure upgrades. Monday, San Diego City Council members unanimously OK’d a $43.3 million contr

Southern California home prices may seem insanely high, but two yardsticks of their underlying values suggest they’re not as crazy as elsewhere in the nation.Let’s be clear. These measurements don’t say local homes are affordable. Nor does this math conclude what buyers are paying is normal. Rather,