O.C. Home Sales Continue Rise

Furthering a yearlong housing recovery, home sales in Orange County rose 5.6% in November with sales of existing homes leading the pack, a real estate reporting service said Monday.

Meanwhile, sales of new homes dropped off 14% from the same time last year, a brief downward slip in a segment that has year-to-date outstripped 1995 by 10%.

The median selling price for the 2,819 homes sold last month dipped 2.6% to $190,000 from $195,000 a year earlier, La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems said in its monthly real estate report. A surge in sales of entry-level condominiums helped dampen prices overall, with the median price declining 14.8% or $19,500 per condo unit.

“We’re seeing an awful lot of condos under the $100,000 mark selling,” DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said. Sales of existing condos jumped 11.5% overall this November to 428 from 384 the same time last year.

Karevoll said the increase in the number of smaller, entry-level condo purchases is probably a result of lower interest rates, low prices and new financing programs that are now available for the first-time home buyer.

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Overall, the sales of existing homes, which make up two-thirds of the market, were up 10.7% to 1,910 from 1,726 the year before.

Realtors and analysts say that this year’s housing market is now the strongest since 1991. With 33,285 homes sold through November, real estate agents and builders have already surpassed last year’s sales of 30,748 by 8.3%.

“We’ve got real strong demand for well-priced homes,” said James Righeimer, a broker with ERA Rafferty & Lloyd in Fountain Valley.

More of those homes are starting to fall in the upper end, Righeimer said. For the first time in years he is seeing a large percentage of buyers move up, or sell their home to buy a larger one over the $275,000 mark.

Realtors say that more homeowners have started to put their houses on the market because they feel prices have stabilized. Some of these owners who waited out the real estate slump have been able to turn a profit, allowing them to buy bigger houses.

That change is reflected in the median price of new homes sold in the county last month. That price increased 2.5% to $229,500 from $224,000 last year. “We are seeing somewhat larger homes selling,” Karevoll said. “Builders are trying to sell more of those than a year ago.”

And as the economy in Orange County has improved, so has the number of people deciding to stay in this market.

“The flight has diminished or almost stopped,” said Dan Slater, a broker with Orange Realty Associates in Orange. “I think that everyone is encouraged by the economy and the low unemployment rate.”

The number of homes going into foreclosure here also dropped 19.72% last month to 912 from 1,136 in November 1995.

Karevoll said that based on his projections, sales in Orange County should continue to pick up steam in the new year and surpass this year’s performance. “The recovery here now is very stable and strong-based. There is no doubt it will continue well into 1997,” he said. However, he said it is still unclear whether home values this year will exceed the $193,000 mark set last year.

Of the 2,819 home sales completed in November, 1,910 involved existing single-family homes. Resale condos accounted for 428 sales, and 481 new homes and condos were sold, a 14% decrease from the 559 sold in November 1995.

The transactions included completed sales of homes that went into escrow in the preceding months.

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Sales, Price Trends

Sales

Nov. 1996: 2,819

Median Price

Nov. 1996: $190,000

November Sales

1996: 2,819

November Median Price

1996: $190,000

Source: Dataquick Information Systems; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times