REAL ESTATE : More People in the Market for Attached Homes
If you’ve been shopping for a new home in Orange County it probably comes as no surprise: Attached homes are accounting for a greater chunk of the market than ever before.
In part, that’s because they provide some of the more affordable new homes in a county where the average price of a new house is well above $275,000.
In addition, attached homes are the only way that many developments can work financially, where rugged hillsides, deep ravines and a multitude of city or county demands for open space, roads and schools leave only a few relatively flat parcels for home-building.
A recent study by Residential Trends, an affiliate of Market Profiles in Costa Mesa, found that 55% of all new homes sold in southern and coastal Orange County during the second quarter--April through June--were attached. Most of the 1,065 attached units sold in the region were priced below $225,000.
In North Orange County, attached homes accounted for nearly 63% of all new sales--up from 20% in the first quarter, according to Fred Schlosser, a Residential Trends vice president. Slightly more than 90% of the attached homes sold in the region were priced below $200,000.
