Tustin Foothills Real Estate Market Trends – California

News for Tustin Foothills, CA - December 8th, 2011 1:03pm
The Tustin/Foothills Area of Orange County has shown a remarkable rebound, considering the economic climate and the time of year, with a REBOUND in prices of 26% in week over week data supplied today...
The Christmas time of year continues to be a historically wise time to list or to purchase a new home, due to the lack of inventory and activity!
Call now for a Free Market Analysis from a local professional in your area!

News for Tustin Foothills, CA - June 20th, 2011 9:42pm
Although these comments apply as much to Orange County as to Tustin Foothills the national media can readily mislead you when it comes to quoting national statistics.

Ultimately buying depends upon the location and how long a buyer is going to stay in
the home. According to the Case-Shiller home-price index the United States dropped 4.6% year over year for the first
quarter of 2011, prompting them to identify the current market as a double dip. Immediately it was all over the
Internet, newspapers, blogs, newscasts, CNN. Now that we are in the "too much information" age, the news of
a "double dip" was everywhere instantly. In performing a Google search, the term "housing double dip"
resulted in 782,000 results since May 30th, less than two weeks ago. What received very little news was the
fact that the index tracts Los Angeles and Orange County combined and it posted a drop of just 1.7% year over
year. Also receiving very little attention was the fact that the national 4.6% drop was hardly the pace of the
downturn of the first quarter of 2009, when it posted a record 18.9% drop. It took a week, but more and more
articles started to surface, indicating that NOW may be the perfect time to buy. Here are a few trends that
point to buying being a really smart decision

News for Tustin Foothills, CA - March 22nd, 2011 12:45am
Orange County Housing Report: Spring is in the Air!

March 18, 2011

Spring forward has a new meaning this year, Orange County housing demand is springing into action.

Housing Demand: Demand is at its highest level since August of last year.
That's correct. Demand is taking off DESPITE the lack of government intervention in the form of a tax credit. Last year at this time the market was very robust. But, right after the first time home buyer tax credit ended at the end of April, demand took a giant nosedive. It was right smack in the middle of the spring market, typically the best time of the year in terms of demand. This year is very different. The market is functioning without a credit to artificially stimulate the market. Current demand may be trailing last year's numbers, but I am confident that there will not be a nosedive in demand in the middle of this year's spring market. I have often said that in housing there are no guarantees. The real estate market is finally following a normal cyclical pattern, something it has not done in years. Here's a quick recap of a "normal" cycle to refresh our memory. Spring is the best time of the year to sell, the current market. It runs from now through mid-June. Pending sales during the spring translate to higher closings in the summer. The summer is when families prefer to move, when the kids are out of school and can nicely transition into a new school. The summer is the second best time of year to sell, but not quite as robust as the spring. Many summer pending sales do not close until the autumn, right after the kids are in school. The autumn is the third best time of year to sell, as demand contracts a bit more. The slowest time of the year to sell is the holiday market, from Halloween until the first couple of weeks of the New Year. A normal market is refreshing. It is much easier to make decisions when we know what is around the corner.

Demand, the number of new pending sales over the past month, increased by 225 in just two weeks and now totals 2,982. At the beginning of the year, demand was at 1,856 pending sales. Since then, it has increased by 61%. Last year at this time there were 288 additional pending sales, propped up by the $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit.

The Active Listing Inventory: Homeowners are finally getting it, placing their homes on the market if and only if they need/want to.
Another refreshing aspect to the current market is the fact that the active listing inventory is not growing uncontrollably like it did last year. Like last year, it has grown unabated since the start of the New Year, but not at the same rate. The active listing inventory only added 67 additional homes over the past two weeks and now totals 10,828, less than a 1% increase. Last year at this time, the inventory grew at a 4% clip in the same two week period, adding an additional 330 homes. There were 8,876 homes on the active inventory back then; but, it had increased by 20% from the beginning of the year, compared to only 8% thus far this year. Last year the inventory grew unabated through mid-September because homeowners were placing their homes on the market at unrealistic levels. Many approached the market as to what they "needed to get" out of their home, instead of what the market would truly bear. The overall market was doing much better in the lower ranges. Multiple counter offers, offers close to or at their asking prices, frustrated buyers, and quick sales were all very common. However, that did not mean that buyers were willing to pay much of a premium for a home. Buyers common. However, that did not mean that buyers were willing to pay much of a premium for a home. Buyers today are "spreadsheet buyers," buyers that want to carefully analyze as much data as possible before arriving at an offer price. With so many distressed homes on the market, mixed with uncertainty about the future, values are just not ready to appreciate. That does not mean that buyers are going to land a home at a 20% discount. In February, the sales price to list price ratio was 3%, meaning that the average home sold at only a 3% discount. For buyers, low ball offers are a ridiculous waste of time. Similarly, unrealistic, overzealous pricing by sellers is a ridiculous waste of time. The current trend of realistic, discretionary homeowners is another healthy sign in today's Orange County housing market.


The Distressed Market: 49% of all closed sales in February were either a short sale or foreclosure.
The distressed market plays a major role in today's market. 35% of the active listing inventory is either a short sale or a foreclosure. 50% of all homes priced below $500,000 are distressed, the hottest price range with an expected market time of a little over three months. Only 6% of all homes above $1 million are distressed, the coolest price range with an expected market time of a little over eight months. In the month of February, 20% of all closed sales were a foreclosure, 29% were short sales, and 51% were homeowners with equity in their homes, also known as "equity sellers" or standard sales. In the past two weeks, the distressed inventory increased by 52 homes and now totals 3,797. There are 699 foreclosures on the market, increasing by 13 homes in the past two weeks. The expected market time for foreclosures is an incredibly HOT 1.64 months. There are currently 3,098 short sales on the active market, an increase of 39 homes in the past two weeks. The expected market time is 2.65 months, a seller's market.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions about this report or any other real estate matter, and rember I'm here to: "Open Doors for You!

Bob Dorman
Altera Real Estate
Cell: 949-613-2219
Office: 949-389-7906
Email: bobd@bobdorman.com
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