Thieves pretending to be property owners plague local real estate

San Luis Obispo County is still experiencing an increase of incidents where persons suspected of being part of an organized crime group are impersonating the owners of undeveloped land and attempting to sell them.

District Attorney Dan Dow urges all real estate professionals and undeveloped land owners to beware a new real estate scam that has been on the rise in San Luis Obispo County and neighboring counties. The impersonators are contacting local real estate agents as well as real estate agents from outside of San Luis Obispo County.

The District Attorney’s Office is aggressively working with all local real estate associations, title companies and the Office of the County Recorder. If you own an undeveloped lot within San Luis Obispo County, you are encouraged to routinely conduct an internet search to determine if your property is being listed for sale. Simply type in your property address, which will reveal several real estate marketing websites. Click on the on link and it will state whether or not the property is currently being marketed for sale.

Cambria led May home sales along North Coast

May was a good month for home sales in Cambria, putting the community in the lead among North Coast communities for transactions for the month. 

Twenty homes found new owners in May, according to statistics from the California Association of Realtors. Home buyers heavily favored 3 bedroom houses above all others with 14 sales compared to one sale for 1 bedroom homes, two sales for 2 bedroom homes, and three sales for 4+ bedroom homes.

Los Osos followed with 15 houses sold for the month, and Morro Bay lagged with 10 sales. 

Real Estate Insight: It’s a Real Estate “Smidge,” not a Shift

If you have been watching real estate over the past two years, you know of the extreme appreciation in home values for San Luis Obispo County as well as the “low inventory” challenge for homebuyers. In the last few weeks, news outlets have been reporting a shift in the market and the beginning of a possible downturn for real estate, based on the increase in interest rates, inflation, and buyer pullback. Let’s take a deeper look at the real estate market for Cambria, Cayucos, and Morro Bay as news outlets love to report on the negative.

First, we need to acknowledge real estate is dynamic, it is not a static industry. Every day someone needs to sell, and someone wants to buy. What happened yesterday may or may not happen today. With that information, real estate professionals look at data from the past and formulate what is expected to occur based on past trends. However, we know one outside factor can skew data. October 2019 was the highest in sales volume for years in our local market. Sellers were happy and buyers were a bit anxious they bought at the height of the market. Then in March 2020 the pandemic shut down occurred. Sellers pulled their homes off the market in fear of dropping prices. Many agents went into hibernation as they figured their business for 2020 was gone. But what really happened? The real estate market roared back in the summer and went faster and higher than anyone thought possible. And it didn’t stop. It continued through 2021 and reached a high point this year. This upward trajectory was not predicted, in fact real estate was expected to level off in 2020.

Cambria real estate leader rebrands to Central Coast Sotheby's International Realty

Central Coast Sotheby’s International Realty celebrated a name change and rebranding with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an open house at its Cambria office last week. 

 

The luxury real estate office was previously known as Barnes and Associates Sotheby’s International Realty. Broker Leslie Dougherty bought the affiliate from Michael Barnes a few years ago but waited on a name change. Now, the organization is the only woman-owned Sotheby’s International Realty office in San Luis Obispo County.

 

Central Coast Sotheby’s is home to nine associate Realtors, including the newly formed 805 McKinney Team of Laura McKinney and daughter Allison Hackett.

How Were March Home Sales?

Homes with 4+ bedrooms in Morro Bay saw strong sales in March, compared to Cambria and Los Osos. 

While Morro Bay home sales outpaced other North Coast communities with 14 total closes, Cambria was a close second with 11 closes.

 

South Coast communities saw similar strong sales with Arroyo Grande leading the pack at 30 closes for the month.