Downtown San Diego Condos Reviewed

Top 8 reasons to work with me: In depth knowledge of San Diego condos. Personalized customer service. Exclusive condo ratings and reviews. Downtown resident for over 10 years. Focused only on downtown. Inventor of Condo Comparison Chart. RE/MAX competitive advantages benefit you. Realtor with RE/MAX since 2002.

Featured Listing Bayside Condos - Developer Closeout Pricing - Only 2 Penthouse Units Remaining Bayside Condos by Bosa Development is downtowns newest high rise, completed in summer 2009. Consisting of 232 units, on..

Featured Listing Park Terrace #513, 800sf Private Terrace, $395,000 Attention outdoor lovers! This condo was designed for you - over 800 square feet of your very own private terrace right ..

Thank you for visiting my website www.LiveAtTheTop.com San Diego’s most educational website for buyers of Downtown San Diego condos. First time visitors should start with the Selection Guide menu button on the left, answer some multiple choice questions and the software will recommend some buildings based on your criteria. Another suggestion is to start by clicking on the neighborhoods button, read the neighborhood overviews then select some condos from the list below within the neighborhoods you like.

Top 10 Questions Asked by Condo Shoppers:

1. Q. What's the best condo building in downtown San Diego?

A. If by best, you mean highest quality, then the answer is the Bayside condos , rounding out the top five highest quality condo buildings in alphabetical order are Electra , Metropolitan , Park Laurel and Pinnacle .

2. Q. What's downtown San Diego’s best neighborhood to live in?

A. This is very very subjective. To answer this I need to know how you rank your preferences for views, walk ability, tolerable noise level (planes, trains, people, etc), proximity to shopping, etc.
If you want the prime views, which usually include bay views, then you want to be in either the Columbia or Marina neighborhoods which have a lot of condos located as close to the waterfront as zoning allows. The quietest neighborhoods are Cortez Hill and Bankers Hill.

3. Q. What's the best way to shop for a downtown condo?

A. The best way is to tell me as much as you can about what your looking for in a condo, info such as size, how much you like to walk, what you want to be close to, number of bedrooms and or bathrooms, how important a view is, amenities you would like to have in the building, budgeted price range, etc. Since your visiting my website, I can tell you like to do some research on your own. My number one on line suggestion, would be to visit the automated “Selection Guide” listed in the above menu (in red). Answer ten multiple choice questions and I have built a program to recommend some condo buildings based on your answers. Be realistic in your answers or it will not be able to find any buildings that fit your preferences. In other words, don’t say you want “great views” and also say you want a “low price range” because that combination does not exist.
One thing I would caution against is to shop by price alone, there are a lot of inexpensive condos downtown and each come with their share of reasons why they are so inexpensive, reasons that may lead you to not wanting to live in a particular building. I think its best to start with your wish list and if you need to reprioritize it until you find a condo that meets this criteria and your budget.

4. Q. Are there a lot of foreclosures (bank owned) condos for sale in downtown?

A. As a percent of the total, foreclosures represented 18% of the downtown sales in 2010. About 60% of them are in the $300K and under price range, 35% in the $300K - $500K range and a about 5% (or less than 10 a year) in the $700K - $1.0M range. Reason for the concentration in the lower price range is that's what investors were buying a few years ago, inexpensive condos, often with 100% financing and now they are just giving them back to the bank since they are worth less than their mortgage. The upper end buyers in years past had to make a larger down payment and are often owner occupied, two reasons for keeping owners in their condos today.

5. Q. How much of a discount should I ask for off the list price?

A. Buyers of condos in downtown San Diego are getting an average discount of 5.71% off the last asking price, for condos sold in 2011, so keep this in mind when making an offer. I was quoted in the July 2010 issue of Money magazine saying your starting offer should be 10% below the current asking price, they did not print my next comment which was to expect to get half of that (5% off).

6. Q. What is the average asking price of a condo in downtown San Diego?

A. At year end 2011, $751,000, for 1,375 sq.ft., equates to $546/sq.ft.

7. Q. What is the average HOA fee downtown?

A. In a low rise building with out full time staff on site (other than cleaning staff) the HOA fee is about $400/month, for a typical 2 bedroom 2 bath condo. In a high rise building, which typically have a lot of on site staff, the average fee is about $800/month.

8. Q. Are you allowed to have pets in downtown condos?

A. Yes, almost every building allows pets, most all have a limit of two. Some condominiums have weight limits and breed restrictions for dogs.

9. Q. How much are property taxes?

A. The state of California has a base tax rate of 1.0%, then on top of that are local taxes for things like schools, street lights, the downtown "clean and safe" program, etc. Add all those up and its about 1.2% of the purchase price due every year.

10. Q. Where can I find a list of condos for rent?

A. Surprisingly there are more units listed for rent on www.craigslist.org than in the MLS. Most condo owners do not want to involve real estate agents in their quest for a new tenant. One exception is the high end rental market, those units above $4,000/month, often these units are only listed with Realtors in the MLS.

Bonus Question. Q. Why should I work with a RE/MAX Agent?

A. So many reasons, but I’ll just pick two, we provide the highest quality of service and are the most productive. Results from the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Home Buyer/Seller Study^SM, recognize RE/MAX for providing the highest overall consumer satisfaction for both home buyers and home sellers. RE/MAX has the most productive sales force in real estate averaging more transactions per agent than any of our national competitors and almost twice as many as our closet competitor.


As a resident of the Gaslamp Quarter since the year 2000 I know downtown San Diego better than most. Please call, email, or drop by my downtown office and let me know how I may assist you in selling or buying your downtown San Diego condo.