Home Prices Pick Up the Pace
Home prices in Orange County picked up steam again last month as sales rebounded from a sluggish start this year, according to a report released Friday.
The median selling price jumped 3.2% to $193,000 in March from $187,000 in the same month last year, according to the report from Acxiom/DataQuick, a real estate data firm in La Jolla. The median also was up significantly from the January and February prices of $185,000 and $186,000, respectively.
The number of homes sold in March remained relatively unchanged from the year-earlier period, though it was a 32% boost from a sluggish February. Last month, 3,065 homes were sold in the county, only five more than the previous March but a marked improvement from the 2,319 units sold in February.
Real estate agents say that sales and prices should pick up even more in coming months as the fear of rising interest rates pushes some buyers off the fence and into new homes.
“It’s just spurred everyone to get going and move forward,” said James Righeimer, a broker with ERA Rafferty & Lloyd in Fountain Valley.
The biggest increase in sales occurred in the condominium market, where low prices have lured more buyers to snap up deals before they are gone.
A total of 591 condos sold last month, a 4.6% increase from March last year. The condos sold for a median price of $117,000, a 6.4% decline from last year.
A thriving market for existing higher-end housing sent the median price of all resale homes up 5.3% to $207,500 in March from $197,000 in the same period last year.
The high-end homes are moving more quickly now as executives, flush with cash from the stock market and a thriving job market, purchase larger quarters.
Two brothers living next to each other in similar Huntington Beach homes saw just how fast things changed, Righeimer said. One sold his home for $520,000 seven months ago. The other sold a few weeks ago, getting multiple offers for the house and selling for $600,000.
“If things are priced right and show well, they move quickly,” said Jean Yeck, a broker with Coldwell Banker in Laguna Niguel. “That’s when you get multiple offers.”
However, with rising prices and slower population growth, sales are not expected to grow by leaps and bounds as they did in the 1980s. “At some point, it has to start leveling off,” said DataQuick analyst John Karevoll.
Sales of new homes already have dipped from last year’s booming market. A total of 462 sold last month, a 5.9% dip from the 491 sold in March last year. The median selling price of a new home rose 4.8% to $228,500 from $218,000 last year.
The healthier real estate market is expected to help reduce the number of foreclosures. That number plummeted 83% to 885 last month from the 1,620 reported in March last year, though last year’s figure was high because banks were tightening lending policies.
