The Seal Beach real estate market

May 30, 2011 // Comments Off

Real estate in Seal Beach, a western section of the Orange County housing market close to Los Angeles County, showed little positive movement in recent months, generally remaining stagnant despite many attempts to jumpstart the market. According to a report published by the Orange County Register, demand for Orange County residential properties declined by approximately nine percent over the last month and a half. This decline is despite relatively low interest rates and continually declining prices for several consecutive months. According to statistics provided by DataQuick, there were just under 2500 residential properties purchased in Orange County during April 2011, marking a decrease of approximately five percent compared to March 2011 and a decline of roughly seven percent relative to year ago levels. Regional sales figures performed even more poorly, declining to the lowest level recorded in three years for the month of April. The median sales price for Orange County, including Seal Beach and the surrounding areas, was $430,000 – substantially higher than nearby counties, which saw a fall of about two percent from April of last year. Orange County median prices, on the other hand, remained unchanged from both month ago and year ago levels.

Seal Beach houses and the rest of the Orange County residential market saw declines in median price over nine of the past ten months. Considering the brief boost the market received after the federal and state housing tax credits, it is unclear where exactly the market is in its overall cycle. Over the months of January, February, March, and April 2011, there were a total of 8.923 residential properties purchased throughout Orange County, representing a decline of approximately three percent compared to the first four months of 2010. However, that figure is thirty one percent lower than the historical average from 1988-2010. The rest of Southern California saw a similarly hesitant recovery, dropping to the lowest level in terms of median price in three years. Broadly speaking, there are a number of factors which have stymied local and regional recovery, including stricter lending policies, a sensitive job market, and a number of investors who have simply been hesitant to enter the market.

Posted in California

The Huntington Beach real estate market

// Comments Off

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.

Posted in California

Palm Springs Real Estate

June 6, 2010 // Comments Off

The average price of a Palm Springs home for sale, along with the average sales price of other Coachella Valley communities’ homes for sale, rallied in the month of April. According to a May 29, 2010 article in KPSP 2 News, “If you’re trying to sell a home or condo in the valley there is some good news. Compared to the same time period last year home prices are up quite a bit…According to a report just released from the Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors, the median home price in the Coachella Valley rose 31% in April, compared to the same time last year.” The article by Jackie Pedroza went on to say that “The median price jumped from $150-thousand dollars to more than $190-thousand dollars…Currently across the valley, there are around 5 thousand active listings for homes and condos. Of those 40 percent are priced at or below 300-thousand dollars.”

This same positive news for the Palm Springs real estate market was reported on by a May 25, 2010 article in the Desert Sun. This piece found that “The median price for Coachella Valley home sales in April rose 31 percent in April compared to the same time last year, Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors data show. It rose to $197,040 from the $150,140 median in April 2009.” The article by Debra Gruszecki continued to say that “Scott Newton, president of the Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors, said the April numbers show a market that is moving out of high-season and is so focused on median price that inventory is getting low. ‘That creates higher demand,’ he said. ‘Higher demand creates slightly higher prices.’”

A high foreclosure rate has led to growth in the number of short sales among Palm Springs real estate, according to a May 23, 2010 article also in the Desert Sun. This piece noted that “With foreclosures continuing to pummel the Coachella Valley floor and home values dropping real estate agents are working with property owners in bigger numbers to drive short sales…Real estate experts say they’re seeing spurts of multiple bids and cash buys on homes priced below $250,000 by investors with deep pockets, buyers from other states or residents with equity in their home, a move-up mentality or frazzled nerves from a volatile stock market.”

Posted in California

Newport Beach real estate market

May 23, 2010 // Comments Off

The Newport Beach real estate market is currently showing mixed signs, but is one of the riskiest housing markets in the country. According to a May 12, 2010 article in the Orange County Register, “New National Association of Realtor home price data for metropolitan areas shows an Orange County house costing 2.93 times what the median-priced American home sold in the first quarter. That’s no bargain, despite a horrific drop in local home prices: Last time this so-called ‘Orange premium’ was this high was 2008 as the market was toppling.” The piece by Jon Lasner continued to say that “Curiously, this ‘Orange premium’ in this downturn did not hit the lows seen in the mid-1990s real estate recession. The index bottomed at pricing of 2.38 American homes for my ‘Orange premium.’ The recent upswing in the ‘Orange premium’ could mean that the emerging firmness in local house pricing may be ahead of the overall economics.”

The average price of a Newport Beach home for sale, along with Orange County in general, rallied in the month of March, according to an April 22, 2010 article in the Orange County Business Journal. This piece found that “The median price of an existing Orange County home rose by more than $10,000 in March from February, spurred in large part by low mortgage rates and generally affordable prices, the California Association of Realtors said on Thursday.” The piece, written by Mark Mueller, continued to say that “The median price for an existing stand-alone OC home sold in March was $493,120, a 2% increase from February, and a nearly 11% increase from a year ago. The number of sales here in March jumped 39% from a month ago, and was up about 15% from a year ago, the Realtor association said.”

This good news for Newport Beach real estate, however, still does not alleviate the huge risk involved in the Orange County real estate market. According to a May 2, 2010 article in the OC Metro, “Orange County’s housing market is among the riskiest in the nation, according to a new study from Walnut Creek-based PMI Group.”

Posted in California

Palo Alto Real Estate

April 23, 2010 // Comments Off

One of the anchor cities in the Silicon Valley region, Palo Alto, California, lies in the San Francisco Bay area in northwest Santa Clara County. It is home to several high-tech firms and portions of the famed Stanford University. Though the market for Palo Alto real estate initially suffered some setbacks because of rough market conditions in the real economy, the real estate sector has begun to chart a smoother course and appears to be stabilizing while many surrounding markets remain in fluctuation.

Santa Clara County Association of Realtors statistics show that in March, there were 51 new listings of Palo Alto homes for sale, putting the inventory at 89. The month saw 27 sales, with homes spending an average of 62 days on the market before closing. The average sales price was $1.65 million while the median price was $1.4 million. Palo Alto condos saw 18 new listings for a total of 45 condos for sale in March. There were 11 condos closed upon, and they spent an average of just 30 days on the market before selling. The average sales price was $650,500 and the median $685,000.

Palo Alto’s quarterly statistics show improvement. The first quarter of 2010 saw 72 single-family homes sold in Palo Alto, up from just 50 one year ago. There were 26 condos sold in the first quarter, more than double the figure last year — just 12. Homes spent an average of 72 days on the market before selling in 2010′s first quarter, up from 56 a year ago. Condos spent an average of 59 days on the market, down from 65.

Prices showed encouraging signs as well. The median price for a single-family home sold in Palo Alto in the first quarter of 2010 was $1.43 million, up from $1.28 million a year ago. The median price for condos in the first quarter was $723,750, up from $696,500 in 2009′s first quarter. Single-family homes in the first quarter of 2010 received an average of 98.3% of the listing price, while condos received an average of 96.7% of their listing price.

Posted in California

Felton Real Estate

April 11, 2010 // Comments Off

A small community of only about 1,000 residents in the mountains of Santa Cruz County in northern California, the city of Felton is a middle-class census-designated place. Felton is a popular area because its home prices are lower than in many other areas of Santa Cruz County. The Felton real estate was hit in late 2008 at the onset of the downturn in the U.S. economy when the credit crisis began, and it saw homes values fall and foreclosures rise as residents struggled to stay in their now over-valued homes.

Since then, the market has been on a roller-coaster ride, with prices rising and falling with seemingly no logical explanation. In late 2009, prices seemed to stabilize, but the last month of the year saw the median price dip yet again. According to local realtor Jessica Wallace, the median price for homes sold in Felton throughout 2009 was $325,000, down from 2008′s figure of around $400,000. However, the yearly median improved from the beginning of the year; in February, the price was less than $250,000, and it hit its lowest point in May, at around $200,000. The end of the year saw four successive rises in median price, from July to November, before falling again in December to around $300,000 from $400,000-level figures in the previous months.

Some of the wacky sales prices of Felton homes for sale can be attributed to a large number of low-priced foreclosures. The Felton market saw a bright spot in sales volume, which totaled 95 for the year, up by nearly a third from 2008, when there were just 64 homes sold. August and September saw the highest numbers of sales activity, probably because buyers were scrambling to close on their homes before the government’s tax rebate program was set to expire in November. (It has since been extended.)

Posted in California

El Dorado Hills

March 23, 2010 // Comments Off

El Dorado Hills is a census-desginated place in the Sacramento region that is home to some exclusive and high-priced real estate communities. The El Dorado Hills real estate has, unsurprisingly, suffered in recent years as the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble dampened the appetite and mood for real estate transactions in the area as buyers hesitated or were unable to secure financing and sellers saw the values of their homes plummet.

From November of 2009 through January of this year, there were 149 homes, two condos and 10 land properties up for sale in El Dorado Hills, according to RE/Max, a local realtor agency. Of those properties, 48 that sold were bank-owned properties and 39 were short sales. The range of prices of properties sold stretched from as little as $150,000 for a condo to $1.2 million for a more than 5,000-square-foot home in Serrano, a short sale, as it was listed at more than $1.5 million.

In the middle of February of this year, there were 294 El Dorado Hills homes for sale listed, a decline of more than 20% from September 2009. The average asking price was around $665,500, down more than 8% from six months ago, while the median price was $522,500, down around 4.9% from six months ago. Of those 294 homes for sale, 21 are bank-owned, 45 are active short sales and  86 are short sales with accepted offers awaiting bank approval.

From the three-month period of November 2009 through January 2010, there were 149 homes sold in the community, an improvement of almost 10% from the previous three-month period. The average sale price during the November-January period was just over $482,300, down only 0.02% from the previous period. Likewise, the median price was $432,000, down only 0.35% from the previous period. Homes spent longer on the market during the most recent period, at 113 days versus just 100 days from August through October. The market, however, ended up with just a 5.9 months’ worth of inventory, an improvement of the last period’s 8.1 months, as some of the excess inventory was cleared out of the market.

Posted in California

La Mesa Real Estate

March 14, 2010 // Comments Off

Southern California is well known as being a hot place for American real estate. When prices go up, the area has had some of the highest prices in the country, and when prices fell, the region was home to some of the nation’s hardest-hit communities, which lost significant amounts in value. In La Mesa, a city of about 55,000 in San Diego County, however, the worst appears to be behind the community as prices and values show a generally upward-bending trend.

According to information from the San Diego Association of Realtors, La Mesa real estate showed marked improvement. The median price for a home in the early months of 2010 was $350,000, mostly unchanged from previous months, showing a stabilization in the market. Additionally, foreclosures have been falling in the area. Throughout the entire county, foreclosures were down to just 986 in January, from more than 1,500 in December.

The federal government’s plan enacted in 2009 and later extended through 2010 to offer select homebuyers tax rebates and incentives of up to $8,000 for buying a home has helped move many of the La Mesa homes for sale off the market, though many were sold at prices lower than they were previously purchased for. In December 2009, an index of housing prices showed that San Diego County’s home prices rose 0.1% from the previous month, according to the San Diego Union Tribune, which was the eighth straight month that the county’s real estate market rose, making for the longest streak among 20 metro areas the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index monitors.

The index showed that prices of homes for sale in the county, in which La Mesa is located, rose 2.7%  in December year-over-year. The index stood at 156.29, up 8.2% from a low of 144.43 in April but still 7.6% below the record high of 250.34 from November 2005. The index was set at 100 for January 2000.

Posted in California