orange county real estate: Orange County Active Home Listings update
- 08/11/08 12:48 PM
The active listing inventory has shed 398 homes in the past two weeks, bringing it to the lowest level of the year, 14,358. The inventory continues to buck the trend of growing through the Spring and Summer markets. Instead, it has remained just below the 15,000 mark for most of 2008 until its recent drop, bringing it closer to the 14,000 threshold. Two things occurred since the beginning of the year: demand increased unabated and discretionary, non-distressed homeowners remained off the market and nobody tested the waters like prior years. Unlike 2006 and 2007, absent this year was any foolish anticipation … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: How Should a Home Seller Approach The Orange County Real Estate Market?
- 03/14/08 09:43 AM
Thus far, homeowners have kept their homes off the market, but the Spring market has just begun. There are positive signs in the marketplace for the rest of 2008; however, the market remains a “buyer’s market” unless you are a bank. So, do not place your home on the market unless you absolutely must sell OR you are willing to take a hit in value in order to move up in the market to a more expensive home. For the “move up” seller, 10% of a $500,000 home is less than 10% of a $750,000 home. The net result for the … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: How Should a Home Buyer Approach The Orange County Real Estate Market?
- 03/14/08 09:42 AM
There was a great article in Time Magazine last month by Dan Kadlec, --titled “Ignore the Headlines!” The article identified something I have been talking about since the beginning of the year, “finance costs will rise as the economy recovers, so trying to time real estate might not pay off.” The article then proceeds to give an example of a rise in rates of just 1%. If home prices were to drop by 10% over the course of a year, but rates rise by 1%, the end result will be a wash and renters would have waited a year and saved … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: Orange County Housing Market Snapshot
- 03/14/08 09:37 AM
The lower ranges, especially distressed properties, are receiving multiple offers. It is difficult to gauge the current real estate market by reading the papers or listening to newscasts. The best way to assess what’s going on in is to poll the Realtors® out in the field, writing offers, guiding buyers from home to home, and representing sellers in the marketing and selling of their homes. The reports are in: the lower ranges, below $500,000, are seeing plenty of activity, with multiple offers and buyers losing out on their first choices. The lower ranges were hit the hardest through the subprime shakeup … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: Home Buyers, What Are You Waiting For?
- 11/21/07 08:54 AM
If you are a buyer sitting on the fence, the conditions are ideal; it is time to get serious about buying a home. There are many buyers out there who are thinking that the inventory is high, demand is low and there is still a lot of pressure on pricing; so, why buy now? Thus, many buyers are sitting on the proverbial fence waiting for some sort of sign that “today” is the perfect time to buy, the “bottom of the market.” Just as nobody predicted the financial credit crunch that hit the world in August, nobody will be able to … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: Orange County Housing Market Conditions
- 11/21/07 08:53 AM
You can put money on the fact that Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will not leave rates at artificially low levels for as long as they did throughout the 2000’s. We will have to wait and see how the history books are written, but Alan Greenspan (the prior Federal Reserve Chairman) and the Federal Reserve, under his guidance, may share quite a bit of the blame for artificially fueling the excesses in the past housing boom. Just as everybody grew accustomed to housing appreciation for years, everybody has also grown accustomed to these historically low interest rates. At the beginning of … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: What can we expect of the Orange County housing market for the remainder of the year and the beginning of 2008?
- 11/21/07 08:52 AM
We can expect demand to continue to rise slightly, after taking a brief hiatus for Thanksgiving, as there is nowhere but up from the lows stemming from the financial crunch. September and October promise to be low for closed sales for 2007. The active inventory will continue its march downward as more and more sellers pull their homes off of the market. Yes, there are homeowners who don’t really have to sell and who are no longer to do what it will take to successfully sell in this market. We should start the New Year with a current inventory of about … (0 comments)
orange county real estate: What if you are a seller, how should you respond to the Orange County housing market?
- 11/21/07 08:50 AM
Simply put, if you don’t have to sell now, then don’t. The only exception to this rule is the high end, homes above the $2 million mark. Contrary to what many think, if all of a sudden every seller on the market priced their home below the last comparable sale or escrow, the fence-sitting buyers would not jump off of their perches in droves and there would be very little affect on demand. So, be careful in navigating the tough waters of the current real estate market. Now more than ever, sellers really need an experienced real estate agent to guide … (0 comments)
The active listing inventory has shed 398 homes in the past two weeks, bringing it to the lowest level of the year, 14,358. The inventory continues to buck the trend of growing through the Spring and Summer markets. Instead, it has remained just below the 15,000 mark for most of 2008 until its recent drop, bringing it closer to the 14,000 threshold. Two things occurred since the beginning of the year: demand increased unabated and discretionary, non-distressed homeowners remained off the market and nobody tested the waters like prior years. Unlike 2006 and 2007, absent this year was any foolish anticipation … (0 comments)
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