Orange County Market Update - February 2008
The Spring Market is already here! Now that the Super Bowl is behind us, we can expect buyers to start shopping for homes. Demand may continue to increase through April or May. We should expect the active inventory to continue to grow throughout the Spring as more homeowners enter the market. We will also continue to see a growing number of bank foreclosures and bank short sales which should increase the inventory further and continue to drive down prices.
Here’s the stats:
- Demand has increased by 570 homes or 57% in the past month
- The average market time, based on current inventory, has decreased to 9.73 months
- The active inventory, homes for sale (supply), is nearly unchanged at 15,259 homes
- The number of new escrows has significantly increased to 1,568 homes
- Short sales and foreclosures currently represent about 29% of the current active inventory
| Current Actives (Homes for sale) | Pending (last 30 days) | Market time ( in months) | 1 year ago (02/07) | ||
| ALL OC (as of 1/10/08) | 15259 | 1568 | 9.73 | 4.87 | |
| OC $0- $500K | 6583 | 786 | 8.38 | 4.54 | |
| OC $500K- $750K | 446 | 443 | 10.04 | 4.2 | |
| OC $750K- $1M | 1768 | 181 | 9.77 | 4.79 | |
| OC $1M - $1.5M | 116 | 92 | 12.67 | 6.04 | |
| OC $1.5 M - $2M | 613 | 45 | 13.62 | 7.42 | |
| OC $2M - $4M | 723 | 38 | 19.03 | 9.52 | |
| OC $4M + | 240 | 7 | 34.29 | 24.89 | |
What does this mean?
Just 4 weeks ago, the market time was at 14.97 months, and today we are at 9.73. Also, the number of escrows increased from 1219 to 1568 homes. That’s an increase of 57% - also, the current inventory hasn’t changed much in the past month, increasing in only 14 homes. It appears that home owners are reluctant to place their homes on the market for now.
In purchasing a home, a buyer should consider the following factors in addition to pricing trends: current interest rates, the number of choices in searching for a home, the tax break involved and historical long term investment data for housing in Orange County. We also have the new loan limits beginning in March which should help more buyers enter the marketplace. It will be unknown for a while what the underwriting guidelines will be for these new, higher loan limits. Buyers should get pre-qualified before getting too far along in their home search.
So, buyers should do their homework and not just rely on the constant reporting on the pressures in pricing. There’s a lot more to making this decision, not to mention, as a buyer, it is much easier to shop when only a few are shopping.
Where to Get Help with Finding a Home
Home shopping is often complicated and involves weighing out many variables. Please feel free to give us a call to sort through some of the challenges. Normally we can help you focus after just about 10 minutes on the phone with no obligation or commitment at (949) 888-6788 or TeresaMihelic@RealtyExecutives.com
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