SoCal Housing Weekly helps you keep up with the San Diego housing market, with weekly news and updates you won’t find elsewhere.
Subscribe to SoCal Housing Weekly for regular market updates
San Diego Housing News, Delivered Weekly
Do you have a vested interest in the San Diego real estate market? Want to keep up with the latest housing news and developments? If so, this newsletter was created for you.
True to its name, SoCal Housing Weekly delivers weekly news and updates for Southern California as a whole, including the San Diego-Carlsbad metro area.
San Diego Housing Market Snapshot
Last updated: May 2026
The San Diego housing market remains expensive, competitive, and highly sensitive to mortgage rates. But conditions are not the same as they were during the pandemic-era boom.
A summary of San Diego-area real estate market conditions in spring 2026:
1. Some sources report declining home prices in 2026.
According to a May 2026 statement from Zillow, “the average San Diego-Carlsbad home value is $941,935, down 1.8% over the past year.”
Similarly, Realtor.com reported a 7% year-over-year decline in the median sale price for the city of San Diego (different metrics, different numbers).
The data consensus here is that prices remain soft in the San Diego area.
2. Tight inventory conditions result in quick home sales.
But don’t let the price softness mentioned above fool you. The San Diego-area housing market remains highly competitive in 2026, largely due to an ongoing supply shortage.
A spring 2026 report from the California Association of REALTORS showed that San Diego County had only a 2.8-month supply of homes for sale, lower than the statewide average.
Homes continue to sell fairly quickly as well, outpacing the statewide “time on market.”
3. San Diego housing market continues to favor sellers.
In 2026, the San Diego real estate market mostly favors sellers rather than buyers. Tight inventory conditions often force multiple buyers to compete for the same property, which gives sellers a negotiating advantage.
Zillow currently classifies the entire San Diego Metro area as a seller’s market, and those conditions could continue through 2026 and into early 2027.
In short: home prices have leveled and could dip further in some areas. But buyer competition remains high due to limited inventory, especially on or near the coast.
What Our Newsletter Covers
SoCal Housing Weekly tracks residential real estate market trends across Southern California, with a repeated focus on the San Diego metro area.
Some of the topics we cover:
- Home price trends: Whether prices are rising, falling, flattening, or diverging by area and property type.
- Inventory and supply: How many homes are available, whether buyers are gaining more options, and whether supply is moving toward balance.
- Days on market: How quickly homes are selling and what that says about buyer demand.
- Affordability: How home prices, mortgage rates, incomes, and monthly payments affect buyers.
- Buyer and seller leverage: Whether conditions favor buyers, sellers, or a more balanced negotiation environment.
- Regional comparisons: How San Diego compares with Orange County, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Ventura County, and other Southern California markets.
Sign up today, and you’ll always be up to speed on local market news.
Covering the Broader SoCal Housing Market
While this page focuses on the San Diego housing market, SoCal Housing Weekly covers the broader Southern California region as well.
And that matters, because San Diego does not operate in isolation.
Housing trends in Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura can influence buyer behavior, affordability decisions, migration patterns, and regional demand.
- When one market becomes too expensive, buyers often look elsewhere.
- When inland markets gain inventory faster than coastal markets, it can change the balance of power between buyers and sellers.
- When mortgage rates rise, the impact can show up differently across coastal, suburban, and inland areas.
SoCal Housing Weekly helps you connect the dots to see the bigger picture.
As a subscriber, you’ll receive local market context and analysis, along with a broader view of Southern California housing trends.
We cover housing trends in San Diego, Chula Vista, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Encinitas, La Mesa, and other communities across the metro area.
Why Subscribe to the Newsletter
The San Diego housing market changes constantly, and in many different ways. Our weekly newsletter will help you stay ahead of those shifts.
SoCal Housing Weekly gives you:
- A clearer understanding of current market conditions.
- Regular updates on San Diego and Southern California housing trends.
- Plain-language analysis without sales pressure or hype.
- Context for what the latest data actually means.
- A more efficient way to track the market without spending hours on it.
Whether you work in real estate, own property, invest in housing, or simply want to understand the market better—this newsletter will keep you up to speed.
About the Author and Publisher
SoCal Housing Weekly is authored by Brandon Cornett, a housing market analyst with more than 20 years of experience tracking and explaining real estate trends.
The newsletter focuses on the forces that shape the Southern California housing market, including prices, inventory, affordability, mortgage rates, migration patterns, buyer demand, and regional market differences.
Our straightforward, data-supported reports are designed for busy readers who want useful market context without unnecessary jargon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about the SoCal Housing Weekly newsletter:
1. Is this newsletter only about San Diego?
No. SoCal Housing Weekly covers the broader Southern California housing market. But San Diego is a major part of that coverage, and most of the newsletter’s reports include trends affecting San Diego County and the wider San Diego metro area.
2. Who is the newsletter for?
We created SoCal Housing Weekly for real estate professionals, mortgage professionals, investors, homeowners, buyers, sellers, local business owners. Basically, anyone who wants to keep up with the Southern California housing market can benefit from subscribing.
3. How often is it published?
SoCal Housing Weekly is published every week, on Tuesday. This frequency allows us to provide broad/regional market updates and summaries, as well as more detailed reports that focus on specific topics or local trends.
4. Does it cover local San Diego housing data?
Yes. The newsletter regularly provides San Diego housing market news, updates, and timely trends that buyers, sellers, and agents need to know about. This includes San Diego home prices, inventory conditions, affordability, days on market, buyer demand, and broader regional conditions.
5. What makes it different from other real estate news?
SoCal Housing Weekly is not a “sales newsletter.” It’s an analysis-backed housing newsletter that helps readers understand what is happening, why it matters, and what to watch next. We do not try to encourage or persuade our readers—only to inform.
6. How do I sign up for the newsletter?
We publish and distribute our newsletter through Substack, and they make it really easy to sign up. You can sign up for free, to get a feel for what we publish. But you’ll need to upgrade to premium to access our full reports, archives, and other resources.
Subscribe to SoCal Housing Weekly
Once you subscribe, you’ll begin to receive Southern California and San Diego real estate market news, updates, and analysis every week—straight to your inbox.
Have questions? If you have questions about the newsletter or how to subscribe, please send an email to editor@homebuyinginstitute.com.