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com SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL July 14, 2014

San Marcos High-End Real Estate Is a Sweet Spot In the Sun
When most of
us think of San
Diego County
luxury homes, San
Marcos may not be
the frst community
to come to mind.
But think again.
This sleepy city
that houses the
relatively new
California State
University, San Marcos has several
pockets of magnifcent luxury homes,
many with the best views in the county.
As far as location goes, its the
sweet spot. Its just enough inland to
not get the coastal fog that can settle in
for an entire day and just enough west
to beneft from cool ocean breezes,
except that its sunny all day.
An example of one of the luxury
pockets is in San Elijo Hills, a master-
planned community development off
Rancho Santa Fe Road, south of San
Marcos Boulevard. Complete with
its own downtown and offce and
commercial space, it looked more like a
movie set for a number of years until the
trees and landscaping matured. Now it
looks like something right out of Its a
Wonderful Life without the snow, of
course.
The frst 10 years in San Elijo were
a furry of housing construction of
all types, from huge detached family
homes on large parcels to luxury
apartments.
Then the recession hit. If there ever
was a situation that could be the poster
child for what happened to the housing
market when it frst cratered, parts of
San Elijo would be it.
In 2012, my husband and I hiked
up to Double Peak in San Elijo the
highest peak in North County Coastal,
and stumbled on this eerie scene in a
development where a few homes were
completely built and a few more were
halfway built, as if the construction crew
had just walked off the job one day.
There was nothing else there but a bored
security guard, graded empty lots and
hawks circling. We had stumbled upon
The Estates, a stalled development hit
hard by the housing crash.
A Chain Reaction in The Estates
Mary Maloney, founder and owner
of Hometown Realty in downtown San
Elijo, knows this development well.
She sold a home in April 2014 in The
Estates at 1065 Quartz Road for almost
$1.83 million the highest-priced
home sold during the last six months in
all of San Marcos.
California Cove, a development
company, built six models and four
production homes in 2004, Maloney
said.
Only one house sold, and the
project went bankrupt and the assets
LUXURY
REAL ESTATE
Stephanie R. Glidden
Rendering courtesy of San Elijo Hills Development Co., bottom row photos courtesy of Bree Bornstein of K. Ann Brizolis & Associates
Center rendering is a home in The Estates in San Marcos that sold for just over $1.8 million. Bottom left to right, are shots of a 5,343-square-foot home on Sunshine Mountain Road in
San Marcos for sale for $2.4 million featuring the pool, the dining room, the house as seen from the gated entrance and the patio views.
were turned over to a bank, Maloney
said.
Then that bank was taken over by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., she
said, before eventually, Home Federal
Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: HFFC) was
able to buy the property back and
formed a partnership with Davidson
Communities to rehab and refurbish the
properties to get them ready to sell.
Maloney, one of the frst 20 families
to buy in San Elijo, had a long list of
clients who were waiting for the homes
to come back on the market, and then
some of those clients made offers before
they were listed.
That started a chain reaction of
other buyers making offers, Maloney
said.
According to my research, six homes
sold in The Estates from April 9 to May
21, ranging in price from $1.3 million
to $1.8 million. None of them were ever
on the multiple listing service. There
are 79 lots left, Maloney said, and to
her knowledge a builder has not been
selected for them.
On the opposite side of San Marcos
toward the north is another area
that has pockets of large estates. Off
of Buena Creek Road, up Sunshine
Mountain Road, perched on 8.75
acres high on a hill, is a custom
Mediterranean estate for sale for just
under $2.4 million. Bree Bornstein
with K. Ann Brizolis and Associates
is the listing agent. The home is on 5
acres and the remaining 3.75 acres has
a separate tax ID number, Bornstein
said. The home is behind a private,
gated entrance of only fve homes and
has ocean, hill and city views. There
is also a separate guest house with a
private entrance.
Plans for a Downtown Approved
There is going to be a lot going on
in San Marcos over the next decade
or so. The city recently approved a
comprehensive 214-acre downtown-
specifc plan between San Marcos
Boulevard and San Marcos Creek.
The project includes a mixed-use
development, a 73-acre habitat
preserve, environmental enhancements
and infrastructure improvements such
as roadways, bridges and food control.
The frst private development is
slated to begin construction in late
fall 2014 and open about a year later.
This project will include about 100
affordable apartments, 26,500 square
feet of commercial space, a community
garden, meeting space and small public
park. Construction has already begun
on the frst portion of the project, which
includes habitat restoration, a food
wall, a park along Discovery Street,
and construction of the Creekside
Promenade.
Private developers have started
development on North City, beginning
at the foot of the university with student
housing. The plans include parks,
retail, commercial and residential areas
stretching almost to the new, highly
ranked San Marcos High School.
The sunshine in San Marcos just got
a little brighter.
Email Stephanie Glidden at sglidden@
sdbj.com with luxury home items.
Photo courtesy of San Elijo Hills Development Co.
This is the view from a 5,675-square-foot home on Quartz Road in San Elijo Hills that sold in April for just below $1.8 million. It is in The
Estates, a development at the very pinnacle of San Marcos. Six homes in the development sold recently, and 79 lots remain.