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Zippiest O.C. home market? Los Alamitos

November 24th, 2009, 10:00 am · 3 Comments · posted by Jon Lansner

Los Alamitos 90720 had Orange County’s zippiest housing market in the third quarter.

WHAT’S A ZIPPY?
• WHO? Columnist Jon Lansner’s ranking of O.C.’s 83 ZIP codes.
• WHAT? Tally of 3 key home-market performance benchmarks: Pricing and sales momentum (year-over-year change) plus foreclosure density (per homes in neighborhood).
• WHY? All rankings need a nickname, thus, “Zippys.”
• HOW? Using DataQuick data for most recent quarter we rank the 83 ZIPs by price, sales and foreclosure — then determine overall ranking by each ZIP’s average ranking.

So says our Zippy rankings that weigh pricing and sales momentum plus foreclosure frequency as measured by DataQuick stats.

How’d Los Al win? This ZIP ranked 21 of 83 O.C. ZIPs for pricing; 5th for sales; and 6th in terms of foreclosures frequency in the community. In the previous quarter, this ZIP ranked by Zippy 27 out of 83 overall.

[ Weakest home markets? CLICK TO SEE ]

Second strongest town, by Zippy math, was Irvine 92618; followed by Corona del Mar 92625 as third best.

When you look at the 83 major ZIPs in the county and their Zippy rankings, you see these noteworthy trends for the best-performing communities:

  • The Zippy Top 25 had a median selling price of $560,000 – that’s +24% vs. the middle of the pack. Curiously, in a discount era — strength at the top.
  • Price momentum of the Top 25 — activity vs. a year ago — was -4% compared to -6% for the Zippy middle of the pack. Surprisingly “near average” for leaders.
  • Sales momentum of the Top 25 — activity vs. a year ago — was +25% compared to -4% for the middle of the pack. The higher-priced market is, if nothing else, relatively active.
  • Foreclosures occurred in the Zippy Top 25 ZIP at a rate of 6.4 homes per 1,000 vs. 9.8 for the middle of the pack. Loan problems are still heaviest in the lower slices of the market.
  • BUT foreclosures momentum in the Top 25 ZIP — change vs. a year ago — was +51% compared to 38% for the middle of the pack. Clearly, a warning sign.

Here’s last quarter’s 10 zippiest ZIPs, as measured by Zippy math, and their respective rankings (1 best; 83 worst) in terms of pricing and sales momentum and foreclosure frequency.

Rank Prev. Town ZIP Price Price rank Sales rank FC rank
1 27 Los Alamitos 90720 $720,000 21 5 6
2 22 Irvine 92618 $508,000 14 16 18
3 67 Corona del Mar 92625 $1,470,000 43 3 5
4 78 Newport Beach 92663 $1,075,000 18 14 19
5 22 Orange 92866 $432,500 5 30 17
6 38 La Palma 90623 $549,500 6 43 11
7 26 Costa Mesa 92627 $494,000 11 6 44
8 4 Huntington Beach 92646 $530,000 9 48 8
9 64 Newport Beach 92662 $1,741,000 58 4 3
10 1 Seal Beach 90740 $706,000 12 55 4
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 3 Comments

  • BOGEY says:
    November 24, 2009 at 11 am

    Despite 1.2 trillion dollars of Gov’t subsidies pumped into housing to stabilize pricing . . . Los Alamitos is OC’s zippiest home market though price momentum still DOWN 4%..Lol = FAIL

  • lwps says:
    November 24, 2009 at 1 pm

    My explanation for the sales jump in Los Alamitos: you can only be a 90 year old homeowner for so long.

  • Jimmy2 says:
    November 25, 2009 at 8 am

    CdM is not as good as the ranking suggest. Low end in decent locations are hot, but higher priced is slow, although values seem to be holding.