The market’s sustained, gravity-defying bounce-back — while much of the rest of the economy remains in a pandemic recession — has caused some to question whether it’s headed for another bust. Despite the rapid sales, the current boom still does not bear many similarities to the lead-up to crisis in 2007, because there isn’t the same proliferation of risky mortgages. From a statistics standpoint, it’s not hard to find some comparisons between the current market and the pre-Great Recession bubble.

San Diego Housing Market Update February 2021

Mortgage interest rates ticked a bit higher in February, but remain below their February 2020 levels.

The Median Sales Price in San Diego was up 15.2 percent to $777,777 for Detached homes and 14.7 percent to $512,500 for Attached homes. Days on Market decreased 30.8 percent for Detached homes and 20.0 percent for Attached homes. Supply decreased 60.0 percent for Detached homes and 52.6 percent for Attached homes.

it’s only natural, with numbers like that, for people to wonder if the housing market is in for another tumble.

San Diego housing market is booming. Is a crash ahead?

According to new analysis from real estate data firm Black Knight, the national mortgage delinquency rate has seen steady improvements since the onset of the pandemic. But about 2.1 million homeowners remained 90 or more days past due on their mortgages at the end of January — which is five times pre-pandemic levels.

At the current rate of improvement, 1.8 million mortgages would still be considered seriously delinquent at the end of June, Black Knight said. That is when foreclosure moratoriums on government-backed loans are set to expire, though the Biden Administration has also announced up to six months of mortgage payment forbearance after that.

Economists said they’re optimistic that the inventory-starved housing market could absorb some distressed properties, but that doesn’t lessen the impact for those homeowners going through tough times.

With prices rising as high as they are in San Diego, homeowners who can no longer afford their payments likely have plenty of equity to avoid foreclosure. The lack of supply, combined with stricter lending requirements than pre-Great Recession days, have shored up the market. There’s still a lot of protections that are going to prevent us in the short term from seeing anything like we saw 12 years ago.