| Period | Pricey | Middle | Cheap |
| Q4 2008 | 34 | 37 | 55 |
| Q1 2009 | 31 | 39 | 54 |
| Q2 2009 | 35 | 31 | 58 |
As the second year of the real estate bust finished — remember the price peak was June 2007 — we noticed one subtle change in our own Zippy rankings: the top is no longer the top.
Zippy rankings that weigh pricing and sales momentum plus foreclosure frequency as measured by DataQuick stats. And just look at this chart showing average Zippy rank when you slice Orange County’s 83 ZIPs into third by median selling price — pricey, middle and cheap! (Remember, it’s a bit like golf — low score wins!
[ BEST ZIPS HERE | WORST ZIPS HERE ]
The priciest ZIP codes — when you slice the market into thirds, by price — trailed the middle slice in average Zippy rankings for the second quarter. Not by much, but by enough to hint at a trend. (Hint: 42 is the average’s average!)
This top-side weakness clearly reflects what we’ve seen and heard — that while the priciest neighborhoods don’t have the obvious housing woes of the cheapest communities, the county’s upper scale real estate has become, at a minimum, a very hard sell.
Here’s last quarter’s Orange County ZIPs, as ranked by Zippy math, and their respective rankings (1 best; 83 worst) in terms of pricing and sales momentum and foreclosure (FC) frequency … Read the rest of this entry »







