San Diego Union-Tribune
Santee on verge of joining region's housing boom
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“Today, the city has either approved or is considering 30 projects that would add 1,611 homes, condos and apartments over the next three years. And that figure does not include the 2,600-acre Fanita Ranch in northern Santee where Barratt American Inc. is planning a development with hundreds more homes.”
“City planners expect...3,000 homes by 2010.”
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Santee on verge of joining region's housing boom
By Jose Luis Jiménez
STAFF WRITER
April 16, 2004
SANTEE – Angela Sobelman camped for two nights at a strip mall for the chance to buy a new town home.
Stories of buyers taking drastic measures to own a home are commonplace in San Diego County's overheated real estate market. It's the setting that gives Sobelman's tale a twist.
Santee is poised to join the region's housing boom – after more than a decade of stagnant growth. During that time, voters rejected a major subdivision with thousands of homes. With not much building going on, the population grew incrementally, prompting the Santee School District to close one school and talk about shuttering another.
Today, the city has either approved or is considering 30 projects that would add 1,611 homes, condos and apartments over the next three years. And that figure does not include the 2,600-acre Fanita Ranch in northern Santee where Barratt American Inc. is planning a development with hundreds more homes.
Sobelman, a real estate appraiser, figured her recent stay on a cold sidewalk guaranteed a spot on the purchase list in a place she wants to call home. Yet the sacrifice didn't lock in the price. All she knows is that it's somewhere in the high-$300,000 range.
"This is something I said I would never do," said Sobelman, 40, who slept on an air mattress under "19 pounds" of blankets. "There aren't that many new homes at a decent price."
From 2000 to 2003, every other city in the county added housing, led by fast-growing Carlsbad (4,729 homes), Chula Vista (9,743 homes) and San Marcos (2,228 homes), according to the San Diego Association of Governments.
Santee, with a population of 53,609, lost three homes during that same period to the expansion of state Route 52.
City planners expect to reverse that by adding an estimated 3,000 homes by 2010. Similar-sized cities, such as Encinitas and Poway, are expected to add 1,649 and 469 homes, respectively, according to SANDAG. The growth leader among small cities will be San Marcos (Pop. 63,528), with 6,140 new homes in the next seven years. San Diego will lead all cities with 35,587 new units in the same period.
Why is Santee's housing market sizzling like its summers?
Experts say that smaller developments are becoming more common as the region runs out of land to develop master-planned subdivisions, such as those that transformed Chula Vista into the county's second-largest city.
Developers are turning toward in-fill projects, where a majority of the infrastructure is already in place, said Russ Valone, a real estate analyst for MarketPointe Realty Advisors. Builders only need to worry about constructing the homes and selling them.
Santee offers numerous in-fill properties linked by a network of roads with easy connections to sewer and water lines.
But smaller projects only slightly increase the available supply, which does little to alleviate the high demand for housing. It is one of the factors experts point to for the rapid rise in real estate prices.
While Santee still has a reputation as an affordable place to live, the definition is much different today. More than 60 people signed the purchase list recently for 33 townhomes offered by KB Homes in the high-$300,000 range.
"Developers are looking at any area where they can find land available for development," Valone said. "It's getting more and more expensive to keep pushing development further out."
Nearly 20 years ago, builder Mike Reynolds sold large homes on half-acre lots in Santee for around $130,000. Now, a 1,000-square-foot condominium in the city's Town Center sells for more than double that price.
"Santee used to be the sleepy, East County city next to El Cajon," Reynolds said. "It's really a city and community that has come a long way."
Besides market forces, another factor was a change in the city's leadership.
After years of promises, the Trolley Square mall was completed and is filled with national retailers and popular chain restaurants. The burgeoning high-tech corporate campus next door will bring jobs to the city. Those are amenities that builders use to lure customers, said Mayor Randy Voepel, who has served eight years on the City Council, the last four in the top job.
"We've turned around Santee's reputation from a no-growth, torture-the-developer place to a tough, but fair city willing to work with the developer," Voepel said. "People know they can make a pile of money here."
Planners predict the new housing should boost the population by 4,350 residents, an almost 10 percent increase. The most recent U.S. Census found the city grew by 73 people between 1990 and 2000.
As in other cities, more residents mean more shoppers and a boost in sales tax revenues. The increase in property tax revenue will augment Santee's general fund. Builders will also pay development fees for road work and park improvements.
City Manager Keith Till estimates the projects will generate $5 million in funds earmarked for parks alone.
Some residents worry that more neighbors will exacerbate current problems of traffic congestion, diminishing open space and crowded parks.
"(Santee) cannot continue to depend on the school district to provide playing fields," said Stacey LoMedico, a concerned resident. "Kids are going to be turned away because they will not have a place to play organized sports."
Newcomers such as Sobelman will keep coming. She was drawn by Santee's warm weather, low crime rate and proximity to San Diego. If the sale goes through, she expects to move into the new townhome by the end of the year.
"It's where I want to be. It's new and a good value," she said. "By waiting in line, I have a choice and am the one in control."
Photo by Fred Greaves
Prospective home buyers (from left) Tonya Taitague, Laurie Richmond and Sandrine Fitzgerald compared plans while waiting to get on a buyers' priority list.
Graphic: Building boom
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Jose Jimenez: (619) 593-4964; jose.jimenez@uniontrib.com