Orange County real estate is finally seeing some good news after years of recession and dropping house prices. For the first time in two years, Orange County home prices rose, according to Jeff Collins, Jonathan Lansner, and Mathew Padilla of the Orange County Register. The October 14, 2009, article claims that “a 24-month losing streak ended last month when home prices increased from the year before, although it’s uncertain whether prices will keep on going up or enter a new round of losses.” According to the most recent reports, “Southern California home prices will be up about 30 percent from the lowest levels by mid-2012.” This comes as good news for home owners who are looking to see their properties revalue as well as for current homebuyers and investors who have the chance to purchase real estate in Orange County inexpensively with the prospect of selling it at a higher price in just a few years.
DataQuick, who helped to provide statistics and numbers for the Orange County Register, claimed that “the median price for Orange County homes for sale – or the price at the midpoint of all transactions – was $429,000 last month, up 0.9 percent from the median in September 2008.” According to a Los Angeles Times article run in the October 4, 2009, print edition and written by reporter Peter Y. Hong, there has also been an increase of interest in smaller homes in the county rather than the palatial homes that once dominated the market. The article says that “deluxe houses now lie vacant in droves along the coasts and hillsides of Southern California, from Manhattan Beach to Irvine.” However, their prices haven’t dropped nearly as much as many other homes in Orange County because their owners can afford to keep them on the market for “months, sometimes years, hoping to find buyers who would pay their asking prices.”
Although some areas of Orange County are recovering quite well, “expensive gated communities housing mammoth-sized residences in Southern California are turning into albatrosses,” reported Alex Finkelstein on October 5, 2009 for the Real Estate Channel. “There are no buyers willing to pay the asking top-tier prices for this caliber of real estate at this time. So the properties sit vacant.”
