REAL ESTATE

Coldwell on Housing: The press release from Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Group said that, despite some pundits’ warnings that the housing market is about to crash, it has had hot and heavy activity.

“Our January sales figures indicate that business is not only good throughout the U.S., (but) in many places we’re running well ahead of last year,” said Chandler B. Barton, company chairman.

He cited increases from January, 1989, of 7% in Detroit, 8% in Tampa, 11% in Minneapolis, 29% in St. Louis, 69% in Seattle and 122% in Las Vegas.

But the release did not have Orange County figures.

A call to the company, which has headquarters in Newport Beach, elicited the information that total January sales for Coldwell Banker offices in the county were down 17% from January, 1989.

Dennis Gordon, senior vice president and director of operations for Coldwell Banker’s Southern California region, said the downturn occurred because interest rates did not fall as low as needed to spur sales of the county’s high-priced homes.

There were spots around the county, however, where activity was way up. In Fullerton, for example, Coldwell Banker’s January sales were 17% higher than a year earlier. And Yorba Linda sales were up 6%, he said.

And the company’s county offices have 20% more listings than they had last year, Gordon said.

Asked whether fewer sales and more listings mean that a bit of a buyer’s market was developing in the county, Gordon said that might be the case in some of the pricier neighborhoods.