MARKET PROFILE
Three of San Diego County's most dynamic community newspaper markets, Carmel Valley, Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe are dominated by newspapers collectively known as the San Diego Ranch Coast Newspaper Group.
Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar represent two of the top six markets in California. Rancho Santa Fe's median price for a single family home reached $2,200,000 in August 2002, placing it first among all California real estate markets. Beverly Hills, long considered the crème de la crème of Southern California real estate, trailed with a median price of $830,000. Del Mar was the sixth most expensive in terms of housing values with a median price of $1,100,000. Yet Carmel Valley is the fastest growing community within the City of San Diego and it, too, is experiencing tremendous acceleration in housing values. The median price in Carmel Valley was $720,000 in August 2002.
"The depth of money in San Diego County is mind boggling", according to Alan Nevin of MarketPoint Realty Advisors. The number of homes selling in excess of $750,000 was up 225 percent between 1998 and this year. "For instance, people who bought a $200,000 home 10 years ago in Carmel Valley can now sell for $600,000. With that equity, one doesn't feel threatened moving up to a $1 million dollar home", said Nevin. Carmel Valley's population more than doubled between 1990 and 2000 and today more than 30,000 residents call Carmel Valley home.
The growth has been fueled by outstanding public schools, ranging from elementary schools in both the Del Mar and Solana Beach districts, which serve Carmel Valley to Torrey Pines High School, a perennial blue chip award winner among California's public high schools. Million dollar homes, long the norm in Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar, now dominate the new-home building scene in Carmel Valley. Housing units in Carmel Valley grew 110 percent in the last decade but the tremendous increase in housing values throughout the community has been even more remarkable. Million dollar homes, some to challenge their counterparts in Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar, are found in new developments east in Meadows of Del Mar, Fairbanks Highlands, Bougainvillea and Rancho Pacifica, and in resales in established neighborhoods like Promontory, Lexington, the Summit and Torrey Hills.
Location, everyone agrees, is the biggest single factor accounting for the rosy future projected for these three communities. They it above the dreaded "merge" of Interstates 5 and 805 in San Diego's coastal north county. Well-heeled business owners and professionals have chosen the area not only as a place to live but to work as well. Close-in, San Diego's downtown airport is a short 0-minute hop down I-5 from the growing commercial community along El Camino Real and High Bluff Drive in Carmel Valley.
The strong value of the luxury market in San Diego is centered in the three markets in which the San Diego Ranch Coast Newspaper Group serves. San Diego Metropolitan Magazine describes the areas as San Diego County's "hottest markets" where "a short, easy drive to work has proved an irresistible draw";for those that can afford housing in tony residential neighborhoods like Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe and Carmel Valley". The best new-home community in the nation is in Rancho Santa Fe according to an award given to the Davidson Communities' Cielo de Rancho Santa Fe development. "Cielo lies on one of the only true trophy properties left in the region", in the eyes of the National Association of Home Builders who presented the award.
There is little doubt that San Diego is always going to be a very desirable place to live and within this southwest corner of American paradise, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar and Carmel Valley stand out.
As one would expect, household incomes match the area's housing values. In Rancho Santa Fe. Median household income exceeds $150,000 in more than 60 percent of the homes. Median household income in Carmel Valley is $92,350, a 30.8 percent increase between 1990 and 2000, according to the San Diego Association of Governments.
In addition to Torrey Pines High School, the area is the new home for San Diego's only Jewish Academy (grades K-12) and by 2005, the county's newest Catholic high school will be located in Carmel Valley. Four of the area's finest private prep schools - Bishop's, Fairbanks Country Day and Santa Fe Christian - are nearby as well.
The Rancho Santa Fe Review has served its unique community since its founding in April, 1983. Under its present ownership, the Review has been recognized by its peers as one of the outstanding community newspapers in the country. This year the Review was named the "Best Overall Newspaper" by its fellow publishers who belong to the Independent Free Papers of America Association. The Review has won IFPA's highest award twice (also in 1997) in the past five years.
In 2001, the California Newspaper Publishers Association awarded its highest honor for overall display advertising in its circulation group to the Review. The Review is delivered to every resident in the community through the United States Postal Service, as well as to a number of distribution racks in Rancho Santa Fe and its neighboring communities.
The Ranch, as it is known, was one of California's first planned communities. An architectural tradition with a strong influence in the southwestern United States is Spanish colonialism. Many of the historical buildings in Rancho Santa Fe reflect the tradition, as do many homes. In 1906, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad purchased 8,824 acres from Juan Osuna, a Mexican citizen, who had been granted the land for the specific purpose of "cultivating eucalyptus trees for the production of railway ties" according to the Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society, but after the trees "proved unfit for the purpose", the railroad organized the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company to develop the property and Rancho Santa Fe was born. Rancho Santa Fe was designated a California State Historic Landmark in 1989 and nine buildings and houses designed by the nationally recognized Lillian Rice are today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Carmel Valley was nothing more than undeveloped land and known as North City West in San Diego until the book in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Once discovered, housing developers and commercial real estate investors came in droves and today's Carmel Valley is a model of neighborhood development with tree-lined streets, convenient and attractive shopping centers and recreational facilities rarely found in major city communities. Quality schools and close proximity to the heart of San Diego's business centers and beaches have propelled Carmel Valley's growth.
High tech companies dominate the new high rise office buildings lining High Bluff Drive and El Camino Real and in order to serve their impressive array of new clients, two of San Diego's major law firms - Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP and Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison - have led the move of impressive law firms moving into Carmel Valley.
The Carmel Valley News traces its beginning to 1991 when Carmel Valley was just beginning to be noticed. The newspaper was acquired by its present owners in October 1995. The newspaper has achieved remarkable growth in advertising lineage and like its sister newspapers, has won numerous awards for its editorial and advertising excellence, topped by IFPA's :Overall Editorial Excellence" award during the association's 2002 annual convention in Las Vegas in September.
Del Mar, where "the turf meets the surf", combines the best of a community blessed with a gorgeous shoreline and a committed citizenry determined to protect its charming characteristics. Del Mar was incorporated as a city in 1959. It is truly a gem on San Diego's north coast. The quaint historical village traces its roots as a small seaside resort to the 1880's but was first made famous in the 1930's by racehorse aficionados from Hollywood. Today's Del Mar Turf Club is nationally known for its premier racetrack and thoroughbred racing each year from late July to early September. Thanks to the annual county fair and the racetrack, Del Mar has become internationally known. Its picturesque personality is unique among beach communities in Southern California.
The Del Mar Village Voice was launched by it's present ownership in 1997 and along with the Carmel Valley News, provides outstanding community news coverage. The Village Voice and Carmel Valley News are delivered door-to-door by carriers and distribution racks line the commercial shopping and residential street locations.