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Lansner on Real Estate ~ The latest news about the housing market from Orange County Register columnist Jon Lansner.

Archive for the 'Local-Local' Category

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Home sales, pricing weak in O.C. mid-section

November 15th, 2009, 4:00 pm by Jon Lansner

For the 22 business days ending Oct. 22 – freshest stats from DataQuick — a region-by-region analysis of local homebuying shows Orange County slices up geographically speaking this way …

  • DataQuick identified 504 homes selling in beach cities’ ZIP codes last month, +32% from a year ago. Median selling price? $693,500 in these 17 ZIPs. Last month’s median price change was -3.4% vs. a year ago.
  • South inland ZIPs — median selling price $505,000 – had 827 sales, +28% from a year ago. In these 19 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was +1.6% vs. a year ago.
  • North inland ZIPs — median selling price $452,500 – had 779 sales, +13% from a year ago. In these 23 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -2.6% vs. a year ago.
  • Yet … mid-county ZIPs — median selling price $363,000 – had 910 sales, -3% from a year ago. In these 24 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -0.3% vs. a year ago.
  • All told, countywide sales were +9% vs. a year ago. The median selling price was +5% in the past year.

How did your neighborhood fare? Check our ZIP-by-ZIP data HERE!

Other real estate trends:

Posted in: Local-Local • Selling patterns • • | 30 Comments »

Beach town home sales up 27%

November 8th, 2009, 4:30 pm by Jon Lansner

For the 22 business days ending Oct. 16 – fresh from DataQuick — A region-by-region analysis of homebuying shows Orange County slices up geographically speaking this way …

  • DataQuick identified 506 homes selling in beach cities’ ZIP codes last month, +27% from a year ago. Median selling price? $693,500 in these 17 ZIPs. Last month’s median price change was -6.3% vs. a year ago.
  • South inland ZIPs — median selling price $516,250 – had 830 sales, +20% from a year ago. In these 19 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was +3.6% vs. a year ago.
  • North inland ZIPs — median selling price $455,000 – had 799 sales, +11% from a year ago. In these 23 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -4.6% vs. a year ago.
  • Mid-county ZIPs — median selling price $351,000 – had 909 sales, -8% from a year ago. In these 24 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -1.3% vs. a year ago.
  • All told, countywide sales were +5% vs. a year ago. The median selling price was +4% in the past year.

How did your neighborhood fare? Check our ZIP-by-ZIP data HERE!

Other real estate trends:

Posted in: Home prices • Local-Local • Luxury homes • • • | 42 Comments »

Home bargains hard to catch in Costa Mesa

November 7th, 2009, 2:00 am by Jon Lansner

cm-listing-1841-tahiti-drive

Ask: $1.07 mil

Costa Mesa: Monroe

Ask: $550,000

Ask: $325,000

Ask: $325,000

Insider Q&A knows that real estate is a local-local business and that market conditions can vary by city and even neighborhood.

In that spirit, we went “micro” this week … chatting with Valerie Torelli of Torelli Realty about what’s up — what what’s not — with housing in her specialty area: Costa Mesa. Click on photos above of 3 sample properties from the city for larger images and house details …

Us: In general, how does the city market look?

valerie-headshot-photo2Valerie: The Costa Mesa market is fairly healthy with just under 150 units currently listed in the Multiple Listing Service: 114 are single family, the rest condos. The amount of homes for sale under $500,000, which is where there is the highest demand, is in very short supply with only 22 single family homes for sale. The catch is that almost every one of them is a short sale and the price listed may or may not be the price that the lender will ultimately sell for. In fact, many of these wind up being “teaser prices” and get bid up. The first-time buyer or lower-priced buyer has the most difficult time finding a property to even bid on. The homes over $800,000 — about 30 with the majority located in Eastside Costa Mesa — are sitting out there with not a lot of activity. Unless the property truly has something special going for it, these homes tend to linger on the market longer. The homes over $1,000,000 have very few takers in this market.

Us: Geographically, do any neighborhoods look stronger than others?

Valerie: The Eastside and Mesa Verde areas of Costa Mesa are still the most sought after, mostly due to what those neighborhoods have to offer: proximity to Newport Beach, and golf courses, respectively, and larger type homes. These two areas are usually high on buyer’s priority lists, and still remain so, but with the larger price tags it prohibits many entry-level buyers. With price-to-value being very high on both the buyer’s and lender’s radar, the central areas, South Coast Metro and Westside have fared quite well. We expect to see continued demand in these areas because of their relative affordability.

Us: What are you telling Costa Mesa sellers?

Valerie: We are telling Costa Mesa sellers not to become greedy, under no circumstances. This tactic is not going to work. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Insider Q&A • Local-Local • Top tale • • • | 25 Comments »

Homebuying gets battered in O.C. mid-section

October 25th, 2009, 3:00 pm by Jon Lansner

For the 22 business days ending Oct. 6 – fresh from DataQuick — A region-by-region analysis of homebuying shows Orange County slices up geographically speaking this way …

  • DataQuick identified 495 homes selling in beach cities’ ZIP codes last month, +16% from a year ago. Median selling price? $685,000 in these 17 ZIPs. Last month’s median price change was -1.9% vs. a year ago.
  • South inland ZIPs — median selling price $503,750 – had 814 sales, +27% from a year ago. In these 19 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was +0.2% vs. a year ago.
  • North inland ZIPs — median selling price $440,000 – had 739 sales, +6% from a year ago. In these 23 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -2.5% vs. a year ago.
  • Finally, mid-county ZIPs — median selling price $353,750 – had 872 sales, -10% from a year ago. In these 24 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -0.2% vs. a year ago.
  • All told, countywide sales were +3% vs. a year ago. The median selling price was +3% in the past year.

How did your neighborhood fare? Check our ZIP-by-ZIP data HERE!

Other real estate trends:

Posted in: Local-Local • Top tale • • | 45 Comments »

Buyers shy from mid-county homes

October 10th, 2009, 4:00 pm by Jon Lansner

For the 22 business days ending Sept. 24 – MDA DataQuick’s latest report — a region-by-region analysis of Orange County homebuying patterns shows …

  • DataQuick identified 446 homes selling in beach cities’ ZIP codes last month, +4% from a year ago. Median selling price? $644,500 in these 17 ZIPs. Last month’s median price change was -4.0% vs. a year ago.
  • Mid-county ZIPs — median selling price $332,000 — had 809 sales, -12% from a year ago. In these 24 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -8.4% vs. a year ago.
  • South inland ZIPs — median selling price $487,500 – had 724 sales, +10% from a year ago. In these 19 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -1.1% vs. a year ago.
  • North inland ZIPs — median selling price $460,000 – had 673 sales, -8% from a year ago. In these 23 ZIPs, last month’s median price change was -6.5% vs. a year ago.
  • All told, countywide sales were -5% vs. a year ago. The median selling price was -0% in the past year.

How did your neighborhood fare? Check our ZIP-by-ZIP data HERE!

Other real estate trends:

Posted in: Local-Local • Selling patterns • • | 28 Comments »

New sign of weakness in O.C. high-end housing

October 6th, 2009, 2:00 pm by Jeff Collins
Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

At a time when Orange County median home prices appear to be heading up, a local index that measures lot values for high-end Balboa Island shows that prices there are heading down.

The Balboa Island Price Index, or the BIPI, is the brainchild of Girling Real Estate Investment Group. Broker David Girling said the inland lots on Balboa Island lend themselves particularly well to measuring real estate price changes because of the uniformity of lot sizes. Nearly 1,100 of the island’s 1,498 parcels are 30 feet by 85 feet.

Yet, Balboa’s 2,550-square-foot lots still remain pricey — with an average price of $1.4 million this past quarter (and that’s the lowest in 5 1/2 years).

Girling’s measure — dating back to the first quarter of 2000 — eliminates the estimated values for homes on the lots and adjusts for each lot’s distance from the water.

“It’s kind of a microcosm of the high end,” Girling said. While not reflective of what’s going on with mega-mansions along the coast, Girling believes the BIPI may be most representative of home values in the $1 million to $2 million range. The results:

  • The average lot value has fallen steadily for the past five quarters.
  • At $1.4 million, the average lot value has dropped to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2004.
  • The third-quarter value was down 17.4% when compared to the third quarter of 2008.  The value fell 8.5% from the second quarter.
  • Average lot values peaked at $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2006 — nearly a year before the median home price peaked in countywide indexes.
  • The average lot value fell 32% from the peak by this year’s third quarter.

Countywide medians and the BIPI may be headed in opposite directions because the median home indexes have been dominated by distressed sales at the low end of the price spectrum. With demand up for cheaper homes, and “jumbo” loans scarce for homes at the high end, sales have been brisk at the low end, while more expensive homes aren’t selling.

“I think the high end started to see a drop the rest of the market saw two years ago,” Girling said. “The prices could level off at ‘02 prices, and we’re at ‘03-’04 prices right now.”

Other real estate news:

Posted in: Home prices • Local-Local • Luxury homes • Top tale • • • | 24 Comments »

Hot air balloon fights the bursting housing bubble

October 4th, 2009, 9:53 am by photo_xmits

Property owner Ed Collins has figured out a new way to combat the housing market … send prospective buyers for his Coto de Caza mansion up in a hot air balloon ride. An interesting way to auction his 6-acre estate!

Video by Jonathan Khamis, OCRegister.com

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Brightcove video.

Posted in: Local-Local • Luxury homes • Media & Real Estate • Top tale • • • | 7 Comments »

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