Line Forms to Purchase 25 Huntington Homes
In a scene that could only make an Orange County developer smile, 19 hopeful homeowners were camping outside a sales office here Wednesday, eager to purchase 25 new houses that go on sale this weekend.
It was a phenomenon that hasn’t regularly occurred in Orange County since the high-flying ‘80s, when a big demand for new houses coupled with ever-escalating prices often caused home-buying queues when new developments went on the block.
Potential buyers--equipped with sunscreen, lounge chairs, motor homes and ice chests--started lining up Monday at the Greystone Landing development near Beach Boulevard less than a mile from the ocean.
“This place is just an incredible value,” said Mike Willoughby, who was the first in line Monday morning. “Where can you get a new four-bedroom home for $288,000 so close to the beach?”
Willoughby scoured the area for months looking for a house that is both affordable and large enough for a family. He said he was attracted to the large lots, stucco masonry, spacious kitchens and white picket fences. The manufacturing representative and his wife, Barbara, live in an apartment across the street from the new development.
On Saturday, 25 three- and four-bedroom houses varying in price from $247,400 to $320,000 will be offered by Greystone on a first-come, first-served basis. The houses are scheduled to be occupied by November, according to Al Wazlak, a Greystone Landing sales agent.
“I think they are priced right for the market,” said Rita Lamkin, a vice president of marketing for Burbank-based Greystone Homes, which plans to eventually build 69 houses in the development. “We felt there was a pent-up demand and we didn’t want to be greedy.”
It’s the kind of news Orange County’s real estate market is looking for. Although sales of new houses increased slightly this spring from the year before, inventory, or number of houses built but unsold, is up 5% for the year.
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At the Huntington Beach site, potential buyers have set up their own “rules” for the camp-out. Those in line must remain on-site to keep their place in the queue. Paid stand-ins are allowed to hold places while the buyers run errands or take a respite from the summer heat.
Joe and Lucille Zentz thought they were coming out from Baltimore to visit their son Frances. He has permanently assigned them to lounge chairs at Position 7, while he works as a port pilot at Los Angeles Harbor.
But, for Joe Hall, the camp-out turned into a portable office. The 38-year-old health-care company executive from San Diego rented a mobile home for the week and brought along his laptop computer, cellular phone and beeper.
“I have lived in Southern California for 17 years and I have never known my neighbors’ names,” said Hall, who will soon be working out of his company’s Cypress office.
“We are already having homeowners’ meetings.”
