San Diego is bucking a trend when it comes to how much money homeowners make when they sell their homes.
According to a news release from Irvine-based Attom, San Diego was among the five regions where sellers of single-family homes and condos made the largest raw profits on median-priced sales in the first quarter of 2023.
San Diego, along with San Jose, San Francisco Seattle and Naples, Fla., saw a profit increase of 1.6%, one of the largest in metro areas with a population of at least 1 million during the first quarter of 2023.
According to the report, margins on median-priced single-family home and condo sales in the United States dropped to 44.2% as home prices remained stagnant or decreased in most of the country. This marked the third straight quarterly decrease nationwide and resulted in the lowest investment return since mid-2021.
The national median home price rose just 1% quarterly to $321,135, and values went down in almost three-quarters of major housing markets around the country. The typical investment return nationwide remained high in the first quarter, almost double where it stood four years ago, but the margin was off by 12 points from the peak of 56.1% hit in the second quarter of last year.
The actual raw profits on median-priced sales in the Q1 2023 were $475,000 in San Jose, $316,000 in San Francisco, $255,750 in Naples, $242,750 in San Diego and $236,000 in Seattle.
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Two San Diego law firms, Nicholas & Tomasevic and Winters & Associates, have won a partial victory for life insurance policyholders in California, according to a news release. The federal Court for California’s Eastern District has granted a motion for class certification brought by Deana Farley against the Lincoln Benefit Life Company.
The filing alleges that Lincoln Benefit failed to provide proper cancellation notices before terminating California policies. The decision means that thousands of Lincoln Benefit policies that originated in California or were moved there are certified for determination in the class action.
The lawsuit also alleges that insured have the right to have their policies revived or receive benefits if the policyholder is deceased.
The two San Diego law firms said in the release that they have filed more than 18 class action lawsuits against insurance companies arguing that the insured and beneficiaries in California are entitled to policy proceeds upon death of the insured or revival of wrongly terminated policies.
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Carlsbad nonprofit housing developer, Chelsea Investment Corp. named veteran executive Jimmy Ayala as its chief operating officer. Ayala was most recently division president of residential builder Tri Pointe Homes. Chelsea and Ayala have worked together for more than 10 years on a number of affordable housing projects in the area.
According to a news release, Chelsea is expanding its activities after having been awarded the contract to develop the 2,000 units of affordable housing at Midway Rising and having been selected by San Diego State University to develop 182 units of affordable housing at SDSU Mission Valley.
Chelsea has developed more than 15,000 units of affordable housing over the past four decades, according to the release.
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WD-40 is offering its customers a chance to win up to $3,000 in cash prizes, gift cards and more, through its just-announced Repair It, Don’t Replace It Challenge. The contest, which runs through July 17, invites participants to submit a photo or video of their repaired item, whether it’s a car, fence, or appliance.
The company will select winners based on the condition of the entry before and after the repair, the creativity and resourcefulness of the repair, and the story behind it. The grand prize winner takes home $3,000, with other cash prizes and gift cards awarded to winners coming in second through tenth place. More information, including contest rules, is available online.
In case you don’t know, San Diego-based WD-40 recorded net sales of $518.8 million in fiscal year 2022 with its products available in 176-plus countries and territories worldwide. The company offers more than 30 products used in home repairs.
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What is believed to be San Diego’s largest private foundation, the Conrad Prebys Foundation, is launching the $10 million Strengthening Health Access, Resources, and Excellence, or SHARE, Initiative to address what it calls “the significant gap in health outcomes in the region.”
The SHARE grants will provide unrestricted grants of up to $250,000 per year to health clinics serving Indigenous, immigrant and border communities. The goal of the initiative is to extend the reach of community clinics and provide culturally competent healthcare to underserved communities in the region.
According to a news release, the “historically marginalized and excluded communities bear the burden of this health inequity, with income, racial identity, and location being strong determinants of health.”
Furthermore, Black and American Indian/Alaska Native populations have the highest rates of disability, while Hispanic residents in San Diego County lack a usual place to go for health advice.
Prebys, who died in 2016, was a residential estate developer turned San Diego-area apartment owner. He left his fortune of more than $1 billion in assets to his foundation.
For more information on the SHARE Initiative, visit prebysfdn.org/shareinitiative.
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Finally…Is San Diego’s economy entering a recession? Well, one indicator is flashing the “R” word. The small business sector here in San Diego lost jobs in April, according to the most recent report from payroll service Paychex. The report found that small business employment in San Diego declined 4% year-over-year.
Overall, Paychex’s Small Business Jobs Index, which measures the change in national employment growth for businesses with less than 50 employees, declined 0.24% from March. California had the weakest small business employment for the third consecutive month in 2023, falling 3% from April 2022.
Paychex‘s IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch is published monthly. For what it’s worth, Paychex claims it pays one out of every 12 private sector workers in the nation.
Tom York is a Carlsbad-based independent journalist who specializes in writing about business and the economy. If you have news tips you’d like to share, send them to tom.york@gmail.com.