San Diego continues to show strong real estate sales for single family homes.  After a double digit increase in single family home sales for April, May exceeded expectations by increasing over 21% from 2011.   These numbers give many confidence the housing market bottom has finally been reached. 

While many contributors play a role towards these gains, including a faster short sale process by banks, none are more significant  than historically low interest rates.  In fact, numbers are now indicating owning in San Diego is more economic than renting.  The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Diego remains $1200 while the median mortgage is $1,100.

The department of labor reported 115,000 jobs added during the month of April, 2012. This number was definitely not as strong as economist were hoping to have reported and slightly lower than the 154,000 jobs added during March.

After a strong winter, with an average of 252,000 new jobs per month from Dec. through Feb., the spring has once again lost momentum in creating new jobs.  In recent years, we have experienced market drops during the spring only to rebuild as the year progresses. Economist were really wanting to see job data stay above 200,000 to break the trend of recent market dips during the spring season.

Overall, numbers are still increasing but the recent job data indicates continued sluggish growth in recovery.  Many economist believe we need to produce 125,000 jobs to keep pace with population growth and 300,000 plus to pull unemployment to pre-recession levels.

According to the research unit of McGraw-Hill Construction, San Diego County experienced a 31% increase in residential construction activity from 1^st quarter of 2011.  While this is certainly good news there are some signs of caution as numbers for the entire construction industry decreased 39% after 1^st quarter of 2012.  The overall decline stems mostly from a massive statewide decrease in state funded projects dipping 41% from first quarter of 2011.

John Moores all-time favorite basketball player is defiantely Magic Johnson!  Magic Johnson and his group of investor’s bid of $2 billion to buy the Dodgers has now lead to John Moores decision to sell the San Diego Padres.

Moores has been the majority owner since 1994 when he purchased the team for roughly $80 million.  Yes, only $80 million!  Moores should also be very thankful to MLB for turning down the 2009 arranged $520 million sale to Jeff Moorad this past Jan.

Now that the $2 billion bid to buy the Dodgers has been approved, Moores looks to gain another couple $100 million for the sale of his ball club.  Now, hopefully, MLB will only approve a sale of the Padres to somebody who has already made their fortune and is intent on bringing a consistent product to San Diego.