The Huntington Beach real estate market, a generally upscale residential portion of the larger Orange County housing market, saw a stagnant performance in April 2011. The rest of Southern California also saw lukewarm indicators in the most recent several tracking periods, reflecting broader national economic uncertainty. According to statistics provided by compiler DataQuick, the median sales price of a single family home in Orange County during April 2011 was $430,000. This figure was unchanged from both month ago and year ago levels, remaining considerably lower than historical levels but well above the nadir of the most recent market cycle. There was some disparity in median price figures between existing single family homes, condominiums, and resale properties in Orange County. Existing single family homes sold for $495,500, representing a decline of about two percent, new homes had a median of $535,000 (off by about fifteen percent), and condos were sold for a median of $287,500 – about four percent off from the previous tracking period. Prices and sales volume across the rest of Southern California fared poorly as well, with median prices falling overall and sales volume reaching its lowest level for the month of April in three years.
Broadly speaking, the economies of Southern California, Orange County, and Huntington Beach have not been performing terribly. The number of jobs in the region has increased, unemployment has fallen, and interest rates on mortgages remain near an all time low. At the same time, a number of factors have prevented buyers from rapidly acquiring Huntington Beach homes for sale. For instance, despite low mortgage rates, credit in general remains tight, and some buyers are simply unwilling to enter the market. Additionally, there are a considerable number of so-called “underwater” homes on the market in Orange County that continue to threaten destabilization of the market. These underwater properties, which often come to market in the form of short sales or foreclosures, tend to depress the median price when they are purchased. Although the number of foreclosures has decreased lately, this can be attributed more to difficulties in processing distressed properties than to any substantive improvement in the overall real estate market.