Quality of Life

San Diego Home Price Ranking In Step With Job Growth

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published April 4, 2013 at 1:41 PM PDT

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

San Diego Home Price Ranking In Step With Job Growth

As home prices begin to rise again, some ask whether another housing bubble is in the works. One analyst suggests San Diego’s housing market is on firmer footing than some other big cities.

San Diego home prices soared even higher than many other big cities before the housing bubble burst, so it’s only natural to be on the lookout for trouble when prices begin to rise again.

But Erik Bruvold of National University System Institute for Policy Research said San Diego’s increase in home prices are in step with job growth.

“San Diego’s housing prices have increased about 10 percent," he said. "That puts us about ninth in all metro areas. If you look at employment growth during the same period of time, that puts us about eighth, so there’s a decent alignment there.”

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Bruvold said San Diego is doing well in comparison to “frothier” markets like Phoenix, which was first in home price increases last year but only ninth in job growth.

It is worth noting, however, that though the rankings almost match, job growth was nearly 10 percent last year while non-farm job growth was only 2.5 percent in San Diego.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.