Retail Property Vacancy Rates At Record Low
San Diego County luxury home prices climbed in the second quarter, a bank specializing in financing the expensive properties reported.
The average value of a luxury home in the First Republic Bank Luxury Home Index rose to $1.1 million, an increase of 2.7 percent over the first quarter, said Katherine August-deWilde, chief operating officer.
In the first six months, prices were up 4.8 percent. The second quarter figure is down 2.8 percent compared to 12 months before and 1.8 percent less than two years before, she said.
Prices in some neighborhoods are doing much better, according to one real estate broker.
“Through the first half of 2000, overall sales were up 28 percent over the same period last year,” said Cathy Gilchrist of Coldwell Banker in Rancho Santa Fe. “Equally dramatic has been the increase in values for properties in the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant, where the average sales price this year is 28.6 percent ahead of 1999.”
The index tracks the value of homes worth more than $750,000 in San Diego County. It is based on a portfolio of individually selected, single-family houses that have their value tracked back to 1985, August-deWilde said. Houses in the coastal area, Poway and La Mesa that sold for more than $750,000 were followed for the local statistics.
– – –
Vacancies Drop: The San Diego County retail property vacancy rate hit an all-time record low during the first six months of the year.
Burnham Real Estate Services of San Diego said the 4.2 percent retail vacancy rate is the lowest since the company began tracking vacancies 20 years ago.
The 1.3 million square feet of space that was absorbed in the first six months of this year compares to 1.7 million square feet absorbed during the entire 12 months of 1999, said Pete Bethea, a senior vice president with the real estate brokerage.
Severance Pay: When J. David Martin, chief executive of San Diego-headquartered Burnham Pacific Properties, quit last month the company agreed to pay a severance package of $1.57 million to him.
Martin had headed the strip shopping center company for five years. During that period, the value of the company’s common stock fell from around $12 a share down to about $5.
Burnham’s board of directors also voted last month to liquidate the company’s real estate assets individually, after a bid for the entire company was determined to be too low, the board said at the time.
Martin’s severance package is relatively small. Procter & Gamble gave its recently departed CEO a $9.5 million severance payment for 17 months on the job, according to the Wall Street Journal.
– – –
Bits And Pieces: The mother-daughter team of Maxine and Marti Gellens of Prudential California Realty, La Jolla, was recently named No. 1 in the Western United States for commission dollars closed by Prudential Realty. Maxine Gellens said they did it with help from five assistants Lydia Majette, a principal of San Diego-based Raz+Majette Designs, received an award from the Centre City Development Corp. Aug. 25 for the U.S. Grant Hotel’s exterior paint design … Larry O’Harra, a partner in the Carlsbad office of Lee & Associates, has been awarded the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation by the National Association of Realtors.
Send real estate and construction news to Arthur Grupe at agrupe@sdbj.com.
