In October 2026, 101 new attached listings came onto the market in Downtown San Diego's 92101 ZIP code. In October 2025 the count was also 101. Over the same two Octobers, the number of attached homes for sale rose from 257 to 319, according to the Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS® local market update for 92101.
The same number of owners decided to sell, and the inventory still grew by about a quarter. That only happens when homes sit longer. Downtown is not short on buyers who want to live there. Many of them are renting brand-new apartments at a discount, in a part of the county where the rental market has more empty units than anywhere else in the region.
The listings held steady and the waiting got longer
The October 2026 figures for downtown's attached segment, which covers condos and other attached homes together, describe a market where each sale takes more time and more give from the seller. Here they are next to the countywide attached numbers for the same month.
| October 2026, attached homes | 92101 Downtown | San Diego County |
|---|---|---|
| Months of supply | 7.6, up from 5.6 a year earlier | 4.0, up 11.1% |
| Days on market until sale | 56, up from 47 | 46, up 4.5% |
| Change in inventory, year over year | Up 24.1% | Up 8.4% |
| Share of original list price received | 94.5%, down from 96.1% |
Closed sales in 92101 came to 51 in October 2026, exactly the October 2025 figure. Pending sales rose slightly, from 43 to 46. The median attached sale price in October 2026 was $659,950, down 2.4% from $676,450 a year earlier.
Taken together, demand held about level, supply came in at the same pace, and the backlog grew anyway because the homes that didn't sell carried over into the next month. Downtown now has nearly twice the county's months of supply for attached homes. The reason has less to do with other condos than with the apartment towers that have opened around them.
The alternative down the block
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Oct. 28, 2026 that CoStar put average Downtown San Diego rent at $3,106 a month for the last week of October, up only 0.5% from a year earlier. Downtown's vacancy rate was 10.7%. Countywide vacancy was about 5.6%, after peaking at 6.2% at the end of June, which the paper described as the highest this century. La Jolla/UTC sat at 3%.
Countywide, CoStar's Joshua Ohl told the Union-Tribune that landlords were offering concessions of up to 10 weeks of free rent to sign leases. Counting those concessions, the county's effective rent was about $2,496 a month, which he said was $5 lower than at the start of 2024.
Downtown has its own example. The Torrey, a 34-story, 450-unit tower in the Civic Core, was completed on July 2, 2026, according to BuildSD. Its operator advertises up to eight weeks free plus a $2,000 look-and-lease incentive, subject to restrictions.
A buyer considering a ten- or fifteen-year-old two-bedroom in East Village or the Marina can compare it against a unit like that, with new finishes, no down payment, no HOA review and two months off the lease. The sellers who list at last year's price expectations are the ones who make up the 7.6 months of supply.
The same Union-Tribune article quoted San Diego housing analyst Gary London: "Clearly, we overbuilt rental inventory in key urban areas: downtown, (University City), Mission Valley and a few other places."
Why the new tower next door is almost always a rental
Downtown's skyline keeps adding apartments and very few condos because of a state law. The Union-Tribune's Nov. 6, 2026 Econometer describes California's condo defect law as built to protect buyers, and says it has put a chill on condo construction since it passed in 2002. In that piece, University of San Diego's Norm Miller explains why the risk is so expensive for builders: homeowners associations can sue on behalf of every owner, so a defect found in one unit can grow into a large, class-action-style case.
A developer facing that exposure builds rentals. So when downtown gets new housing, the units go into the rental pool, which pushes vacancy higher and makes the deals deeper. That is the market every condo resale is competing in.
The most recent attempt to change the law did not survive. The same article reports that AB 1903, which would have made it easier for builders to defend against defect lawsuits, died in August when it failed to get a vote before the legislative session ended. London told the paper he expects new legislation in 2027.
The for-sale pipeline downtown is short:
- Andia, a 40-story, 399-unit tower, opened sales in 2025, and the Union-Tribune called it downtown's first new condo tower in eight years. The City of San Diego's July 2026 development activity log listed it as under construction.
- Columbia & A, just south of Little Italy, is a 39-story mixed-use tower with 202 condominiums and 231 hotel rooms. BuildSD lists its completion year as 2027.
London sees another possible outcome. He told the Union-Tribune that empty apartments open the door to condo conversions, and that some high-end rental projects might consider converting. For now, that remains an analyst's view of what could happen.
The building's finances now carry more weight in the loan
The condo itself also has to qualify for the buyer's loan. In Lender Letter LL-2026-03, Fannie Mae changed how lenders review condo projects for conventional loans it purchases. The letter ties underfunded reserves to buildings that need critical repairs and to owners facing unexpected special assessments or higher dues.
The changes that matter for an established downtown tower come in sequence:
- Aug. 3, 2026. Fannie Mae retired the Limited Review process for loan applications dated on or after this date. Established projects that once qualified for it now go through Full Review, or a Waiver of Project Review where one applies.
- Aug. 3, 2026. When a lender uses a reserve study to show a project's reserves are adequate, the budget must include the highest recommended reserve allocation in that study. The baseline funding method, which lets the reserve balance approach zero without going below it, is no longer allowed.
- Jan. 4, 2027. For Full Reviews on applications dated on or after this date, the minimum reserve allocation for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance rises from 10% to 15% of the annual budgeted assessment income.
The waiver expansion in the same letter applies to projects with ten or fewer units, so it does not help with high-rise towers.
For a buyer, this means the HOA budget, reserve study and repair history move closer to the middle of the deal. A renter at The Torrey signs none of those documents. A condo buyer's financing may depend on all of them, and the Jan. 4 threshold turns on the date of the loan application, not the date escrow opens. This is general information about a published lending policy, not legal or financial advice. Your lender and attorney can tell you how it applies to a specific building and loan.
What this means when you make an offer
With 7.6 months of supply, 56 days on market and sellers getting 94.5% of original list price in October 2026, buyers in 92101 have room to negotiate that buyers elsewhere in the county mostly don't. Some of that room comes from the rental market. A buyer can lease a new unit at a discount and wait, and sellers who understand that tend to price for it.
The buildings that sell well this winter are likely to be the ones whose associations can hand over a clean budget and a well-funded reserve study quickly, because those buildings fit the review lenders now have to run. Sellers who gather those papers before listing take an obstacle out of the transaction.
A few questions buyers ask
Is the 92101 data condo-only? No. The Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS® reports 92101 as "Attached," which includes condos and other attached homes.
Will downtown rents rise soon and change the comparison? CoStar's Ohl told the Union-Tribune that large rent increases are unlikely in the coming year because of heavy competition. CoStar expected 6,400 new apartments to open countywide by the end of 2026, with another 7,600 under construction.
Does the defect law affect resale buildings too? The law shapes how much new for-sale housing gets built, and that keeps resale towers as most of what downtown offers buyers. How it bears on a particular building's history is a question for an attorney.
A downtown condo sale this season depends on the building's paperwork as much as the view, and on how the price compares with a discounted lease a few blocks away. Hernholm Group helps buyers and sellers in central San Diego read association documents, price against the rental market and plan a purchase around the January reserve change. For a quiet conversation about a specific tower, or access to private and off-market downtown residences, Get Access to Exclusive Listings.