Median Price of O.C. Homes Takes a Dip

Orange County’s surging housing market showed signs of cooling off last month, according to a report on home prices and sales released Monday.

The median price of a home in the county fell to $227,000 in September, down $3,000 from the previous month. The prices were still 9.7% above prices a year ago, but it was the first time in almost a year that home prices haven’t shot up in double digits, according to Acxiom/DataQuick Information Services, which compiled the survey.

A sudden leap in mortgage rates last week could cloud the market, but some analysts said they expect housing demand to remain strong. They point out that mortgage rates remain at relatively low levels, despite a half-percentage point gain late last week that offset most of the declines in rates over the last two months.

“The change we’ve seen in the last week isn’t enough to change the factors that are affecting home sales,” said Earl Peattie, president of Mortgage News Co. of Morro Bay, who has compiled a weekly report on mortgage rates in Southern California for more than 12 years.

He added that rates remain at some of the lowest levels in 20 years, and that he believes those who will be affected most by the sudden spike in rates are people with marginal credit.

In the past couple of years, partly because of income growth, looser credit and lower mortgage rates in general, the housing market has not been as sensitive to changes as in the past, Peattie said.

Although the increase in mortgage rates will knock some buyers out of the market, “the bigger effect on home sales is the state of the economy, rather than this blip in mortgage interest rates,” said economist Walter Hahn.

Bruce Lehman, executive vice president of Catellus Residential Group, said it’s too soon to say what the impact will be. But “if rates don’t go up any further, we wouldn’t anticipate any profound impact.”

At Santa Ana-based Norwest Mortgage Inc., a large lender in the new-home market, the effect of last week’s rate increase has been nil, said Dan Hanson, senior vice president. “The difference of a half-percentage point will not be a big deterrent,” he said.

Indeed, the sudden increase could cause people who have been on the sidelines to jump into the market, realizing that rates are as low as they are likely to get.

“Once rates bounce up a bit, people realize rates have hit bottom and have gone as low as they can,” said Bill Plattos, general manager, First Team Realty in Costa Mesa. “It may cost a few more bucks, but rates are still lower than 7%. I’m real comfortable in saying this will increase volume rather than slow it down.”

Although home sales tend to sag in September as the pool of buyers thins out as their children head off to school, the past month ranked as the busiest September since at least 1990. It marked the 16th consecutive month that prices showed a year-over-year increase.

A total of 4,331 homes sold in September, up 9.6% from the same month last year. Existing houses and condos both continued to enjoy double-digit growth during the month, but new-home sales dropped 37% as developers, hampered by a shortage of ready-to-build lots, have been unable to satisfy demand.

One key reason that prices remain so far ahead of year-ago levels is that appreciation has spread throughout the market. Although high-end homes led the housing revival, even starter homes have gained in value rapidly over the past 12 months. As a result, median prices per square foot in September were almost 14% over year-ago levels, Acxiom/Dataquick said. Plattos acknowledged that the volume of transactions in September dipped about 5% from August levels at his First Team office in Costa Mesa.

“If the country has a slowdown next year, Orange County won’t participate at the same rate,” he said. “Houses will still keep selling.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Orange County Home Sales

September home sales increased 9.6% from a year ago to 4,331, but that was short of the August tally of 4,710 sales. Similarly, the September median price of $227,000 was up from a year ago, but down from the August level of $230,000. Sales, median prices of new and resale homes and condominiums, by ZIP code:

*--*

Community Pct. Median Pct. ’97 Med. ’98 Med. /Zip Sales Chng. price Chng. Sq.Ft.(1) Sq.Ft.(1) Aliso Viejo 92656 145 14.2% $188,018 -5.0% $123 $140 Anaheim 92801 39 21.9% $164,363 12.6% $113 $122 Anaheim 92802 15 -37.5% $185,000 12.3% $111 $117 Anaheim 92804 74 39.6% $169,500 11.5% $114 $126 Anaheim 92805 50 13.6% $158,250 9.1% $115 $126 Anaheim 92806 35 66.7% $205,000 10.5% $114 $118 Anaheim 92807 62 -7.5% $229,500 2.0% $125 $131 Anaheim 92808 72 22.0% $229,250 46.0% $122 $148 Brea 92821 41 20.6% $220,000 14.1% $116 $140 Buena Park 90620 48 23.1% $179,500 8.8% $120 $144 Buena Park 90621 28 27.3% $151,000 0.0% $115 $112 Corona del Mar 92625 23 -4.2% $552,000 -8.0% $275 $299 Costa Mesa 92626 43 -4.4% $234,500 7.6% $138 $137 Costa Mesa 92627 56 16.7% $221,500 13.6% $163 $175 Cypress 90630 60 -3.2% $222,500 1.6% $131 $135 Dana Point 92624 10 -23.1% $259,500 9.5% $156 $217 Dana Point 92629 53 -24.3% $280,000 -3.3% $148 $203 Foothill Ranch 92610 24 -36.8% $252,250 17.7% n/a $158 Fountain Valley 92708 72 18.0% $253,000 13.5% $126 $144 Fullerton 92831 31 19.2% $166,500 -21.5% $121 $139 Fullerton 92832 22 29.4% $166,000 3.8% $128 $151 Fullerton 92833 73 55.3% $169,500 4.6% $124 $138 Fullerton 92835 32 52.4% $250,500 16.5% $129 $143 Garden Grove 92840 63 57.5% $174,000 12.3% $122 $132 Garden Grove 92841 39 116.7% $179,000 5.3% $122 $132 Garden Grove 92843 40 0.0% $159,655 14.0% $124 $133 Garden Grove 92844 32 60.0% $171,000 19.2% $118 $122 Garden Grove 92845 29 38.1% $214,000 12.6% $153 $170 Huntington Beach 92646 70 -16.7% $278,000 14.9% $145 $165 Huntington Beach 92647 63 16.7% $230,000 4.1% $141 $172 Huntington Beach 92648 107 50.7% $358,000 31.1% $151 $179 Huntington Beach 92649 75 53.1% $240,000 6.7% $167 $191 Irvine 92604 57 42.5% $240,000 14.0% $159 $177 Irvine 92606 29 -19.4% $250,000 7.3% $137 $163 Irvine 92612 48 4.3% $270,500 14.0% $155 $191 Irvine 92614 58 23.4% $232,250 13.6% $161 $190 Irvine 92620 53 -26.4% $257,500 -7.5% $134 $164 La Habra 90631 62 19.2% $166,020 5.6% $120 $124 La Palma 90623 23 283.3% $287,000 22.6% $120 $138 Laguna Beach 92651 60 17.6% $550,000 15.7% $277 $315 Laguna Hills 92653 120 9.1% $185,000 12.1% $145 $164 Laguna Niguel 92677 198 10.6% $272,500 2.3% $150 $173 Lake Forest 92630 120 23.7% $214,500 11.4% $121 $153 Los Alamitos 90720 28 133.3% $342,000 15.7% $180 $171 Mission Viejo 92691 106 11.6% $221,000 6.5% $123 $151 Mission Viejo 92692 118 -26.7% $280,000 12.6% $125 $156 Newport Beach 92657 13 -27.8% $550,000 9.3% $295 n/a Newport Beach 92660 62 -20.5% $526,000 5.4% $219 $253 Newport Beach 92661 7 40.0% $530,000 1.0% $258 $381 Newport Beach 92663 35 -7.9% $370,500 0.8% $312 $253 Orange 92865 21 -4.5% $159,000 -18.9% $122 $129 Orange 92866 15 -21.1% $195,000 4.3% $133 $145 Orange 92867 51 21.4% $225,000 14.5% $130 $146 Orange 92868 14 -39.1% $157,744 1.1% $128 $146 Orange 92869 92 31.4% $215,000 -6.5% $114 $144 Placentia 92870 61 -11.6% $228,000 24.3% $117 $135 R. Santa Margarita 92688 143 -25.5% $183,445 -2.9% $115 $151 S. Juan Capistrano 92675 76 -26.9% $233,500 -32.3% $131 $139 San Clemente 92672 70 -1.4% $267,000 23.2% $169 $183 San Clemente 92673 36 -5.3% $357,500 39.8% $144 $180 Santa Ana 92701 26 -10.3% $92,000 -10.3% $122 $125 Santa Ana 92703 46 17.9% $141,362 18.8% $108 $126 Santa Ana 92704 92 67.3% $141,000 -1.4% $121 $129 Santa Ana* 92705 54 17.4% $350,000 20.0% $136 $155 Santa Ana 92706 39 30.0% $187,250 13.5% $128 $144 Santa Ana 92707 70 37.3% $149,000 16.9% $113 $136 Seal Beach 90740 22 15.8% $312,000 2.3% $180 $187 Stanton 90680 36 125.0% $122,438 5.6% $121 $119 Trabuco/Coto 92679 63 -49.6% $376,000 25.5% $114 $155 Tustin 92780 67 4.7% $177,000 4.3% $121 $129 Tustin 92782 57 72.7% $250,000 51.5% $124 $152 Villa Park 92861 10 -23.1% $537,000 24.9% $124 $183 Westminster 92683 102 20.0% $190,000 8.6% $117 $133 Yorba Linda 92886 70 6.1% $312,500 28.1% $129 $152 Yorba Linda 92887 52 52.9% $346,000 8.8% $126 $156 Other -- 123 -- -- -- -- -- Countywide 4,331 9.6% $227,000 9.7% $130 $148

*--*

*Includes Lemon/Cowan Heights

(1) Median resale price per square foot

Sales, Price Trends

Monthly Sales: 4,331

Median Price: $227,000

September Sales: 4,331

September Median Prices: $227,000

Source: Axciom/DataQuick Information Systems; Researched by JANICE JONES DODDS/Los Angeles Times

Still Up There

The median housing price in Orange County slipped $3,000 to $227,000 last month, above, but that still ranked as one of the highest prices of the decade. It also was a busy month for home sales.

Sales and Price Trend

1998 Sales Median price: $227,000