Real Estate Market

O.C. Real Estate Update by Zen (June 2011)

Zen's Real Estate VIDEOS and BLOG... Real Estate News You Need to Know!

Orange County Latest R.E. Market Statistics for May 2011

The latest Orange County home inventory report data as of June 9 — shows 11,337 homes for sale, up 118 or 1% in two weeks and 12% higher than a year ago.

The lower the price range, the quicker a buyer comes to the realization that if a home is priced right, it flies off of the market, often times generating multiple offers and offers to purchase at or close to their asking prices. There’s a lot of activity because prices have already dropped considerably. The average home in Orange County has dropped about 35%. So, prices are already attractive in most cases and the worst of the pricing declines are in the rear view mirror.

Calculating a “market time” benchmark tracking how many months it theoretically takes to sell all the inventory in the local MLS for-sale listings at the current pace of pending deals being made. By this logic, as of last Thursday, it would take:

  • 3.66 months for buyers to gobble up all homes for sale at the current pace vs. 3.68 months two weeks ago vs. 3.19 months a year ago vs. 2.55 months two years ago.
  • Of the 8 pricing slices Thomas tracks, 4 had faster market time vs. 2 weeks ago; and 2 improved over a year ago.
  • Homes listed for under a million bucks have a market time of 3.27 months vs. 8.87 months for homes listed for more than $1 million.
  • So, basically, it is 2.7 times harder to sell a million-dollar-plus residence!
  • And just so you know, the million-dollar market represents 18% of all homes listed and 7% of all homes that entered into escrow in the past 30 days.
Median Sale Price Sales Volume
Community Zip Prev. 4 weeks % Change from 10 Prev. 4 weeks % Change from 10
All Orange County Homes All $425,000 -5.60% 2,664 -18.20%
Total Resale Houses(SFR) All $500,000 -2.90% 1,702 -15.50%
Total Resale Condos All $265,000 -13.10% 764 -18.90%
Total New Home Sales All $560,500 -13.10% 198 -34.00%
Aliso Viejo 92656 $342,000 -19.00% 81 -35.20%
Dana Point 92629 - 92624 $598,500 8.35% 39 -8.00%
Irvine 92602 - 92620 $566,830 -9.38% 272 -15.80%
Ladera Ranch 92694 $506,000 -6.70% 41 -33.90%
Laguna Beach 92651 $1,111,750 18.00% 16 -61.90%
Laguna Hills 92653 $420,000 -9.70% 33 -5.70%
Laguna Niguel 92677 $455,000 -11.00% 99 -1.00%
Lake Forest 92630 $420,500 -1.10% 51 -28.20%
Mission Viejo 92691 - 92692 $431,250 -12.60% 117 -0.05%
Newport Beach 92660 & 92663 $988,000 13.25% 73 7.95%
Newport Coast 92657 $1,747,500 -10.40% 21 -22.20%
Rancho Santa Margarita 92688 $380,000 9.40% 66 -29.00%
San Clemente 92672 - 92673 $572,500 -3.10% 88 -2.70%
San Juan Capistrano 92675 $457,500 1.70% 30 -40.00%
Sales Statistics
for ORANGE County CA
Realist's most recent recording date for this county is 06/07/2011
Single Family Residence
Time Period Number of Sales Median Sale Price
Apr 2011 1,548 $499,500
Apr 2010 1,638 $504,000
Mar 2011 1,611 $490,000
Mar 2010 1,719 $515,000
2011 YTD 7,300 $490,000
2010 19,421 $510,000
Condominium
Time Period Number of Sales Median Sale Price
Apr 2011 777 $310,000
Apr 2010 868 $310,000
Mar 2011 839 $315,000
Mar 2010 925 $311,000
2011 YTD 3,703 $305,000
2010 9,622 $315,000

The Foreclosure Saga....Is There Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

As reported on DSNews.com

According to researchers at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, this Great Recession has exacerbated the housing affordability challenges which buyers are facing.

The Center says its last measure of home-cost challenges showed that 9.3 million homeowners paid more than half their income on their mortgage – and that was in 2009. With the state of the labor market only worsening since then, and not only unemployment but underemployment plaguing more and more American families, the figure has undoubtedly risen.

While low-income households are most likely to have such severe burdens, the Harvard researchers point out that cost pressures have been moving up the ladder to affect more moderate- and middle-income households. In fact, rates of severe-cost burden among households making between $45,000 and $60,000 per year has nearly doubled since 2001.

In addition to longstanding and worsening affordability challenges, the academia report points out that the housing crash and ensuing economic downturn drained household wealth, ruined the credit standing of many borrowers, and devastated communities with widespread foreclosures.

According to the Harvard Housing Center’s study, the collapse of house prices has left nearly 15 percent of homeowners with properties worth less than their mortgages and eroded the equity of most others.

Overall, the amount of real home equity fell from $14.9 trillion at its peak in the first quarter of 2006 to $6.3 trillion at the end of 2010 – well below the $10.1 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the foreclosure crisis continues. The report cites statistics from Lender Processing Services which show that as of the end of March, about 2 million home loans were at least 90 days delinquent and another 2.2 million properties were still in the foreclosure pipeline. The LPS study found that 67 percent of these owners had made no payments in over a year, and 31 percent had gone for two years without a payment.

On the foreclosure front, the Harvard report says the good news is that the share of home loans delinquent by at least three months dropped from 5.6 percent in early 2010 to 3.8 percent in March – a sign of light at the end of the tunnel, according to the researchers.

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Keeping you informed about the Orange County real estate market, economy and life in the OC is what I'm committed to doing.

For more great Orange County market insight and industry news visit Laguna Niguel Real Estate or view the Orange County Market Trends at Orange County Real Estate.

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