SAN DIEGO—An influx of Millennials may become first-time home buyers this year, and many are employed in the tech industry, which is particularly strong in some areas of San Diego County, Baldwin & Sons' VP of sales and marketing Melissa Hazlett tells GlobeSt.com. The firm, based in Newport Beach, CA, and San Diego, is developing homes in Otay Ranch, a 5,300-acre planned community in Chula Vista, CA. We spoke with Hazlett about the trends shaping San Diego's housing market and how the developer is overcoming challenges in this market.
GlobeSt.com: What are the major events or trends in San Diego that are shaping the housing marketplace today?
Hazlett: One major expectation among builders active in the county at large is that an influx of Millennials may become first-time home buyers this year. A lot are employed in the tech industry, which is particularly strong in some areas of San Diego County. However, the other trend that we are specifically seeing, and that more directly affects our Otay Ranch by Baldwin & Sons master-planned community in Chula Vista, is continued growth in new-home demand among the military, government, and healthcare workers. This demographic comprises 76% of our buyers and, in general, influences a lot of additional consumer trends and development in this particular portion of the county, just south of Downtown San Diego.
GlobeSt.com: What are some of the challenges you have recently faced as a developer in this market and do you expect these to continue in 2018?
Hazlett: One of the challenges we currently face is getting new construction started and completed at the same rate as the demand. We have overcome this and been able to keep pace by working diligently to get land development and construction moving faster. For example, we now pull permits for multiple phases at once, rather than one phase at a time.
GlobeSt.com: Like many major metros in California, San Diego County is an expensive place to live. How are you, as a major developer in the region, able to deliver housing effectively at a price point that is affordable to many?
Hazlett: We do a lot of our own market research to determine what's truly affordable for our buyers. We also understand that today's buyer is educated and is looking for a lot of value in the home they ultimately choose. We've also discovered that the buyers interested in our master plan fall into numerous price ranges and we therefore build more homes to cater to everyone. In essence, we know the area, we know the market and our focus is just on the demand in the Otay Ranch area.
GlobeSt.com: In 2017, you opened numerous communities within Otay Ranch. What are the demographics of your buyers and where is all of the demand coming from?
Hazlett: Again, market research and our experience building in the area has helped us understand who our buyers are. We cater to a variety of families and designed our community to cater to their needs. Our buyers are also employed in the area and want close proximity to their jobs, the beach and Downtown San Diego. They don't want to commute long distances to work or to access regional amenities.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
