O.C. Home Prices Reach Record Levels

The typical home price in Orange County surged last month to a new high of $260,000, and the real estate market showed no signs of slowing as it heads into the prime home-buying season.

The median price for new and existing houses and condominiums jumped 12% from the previous March, exceeding analysts’ expectations.

The number of homes sold last month increased 7% despite the rise in interest rates, according to a study released Tuesday by Acxiom/Dataquick Information Systems Inc., a La Jolla real estate research firm.

Even with the recent stock market gyrations, analysts expect the entire Southern California market to heat up through the end of summer as more people scour the mar

ket for new homes.

“We’re in for a very good season,” said John Karevoll, an Acxiom analyst. “It’s just old simple math: The economy is growing and people have more money than they did three or five years ago.”

He predicts that overall median prices in Orange County should reach $275,000 later this year.

And sometime this summer, Los Angeles County’s home prices will surpass the previous record high of $203,000 posted in May 1991, he said. That county’s median price--the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less--grew 6% in March to $192,000.

From Orange County’s newest tracts to older Los Angeles neighborhoods, nearly all areas of both counties showed “solid” gains in home values, Karevoll said. Even rental homes sold by investors--the last segment to appreciate in value--have recorded median price gains of 5% to 7%, he said.

Bolstered by rising consumer confidence and a robust economy, March sales also were strong. In Orange County, a record 4,754 homes were sold last month, a 7% increase over the previous March. Los Angeles County reported a 6% gain to 10,168.

The sales reflect transactions that were begun mostly in January and February, before the stock markets began gyrating dramatically.

The recent housing gains reflect the region’s steady growth in jobs and incomes, but there are concerns about the surge in housing prices that has continued for more than a year regionally and more than three years in Orange County.

With each jump in price, fewer families are able to afford a median-priced house. Moreover, the stock market slide since March, and the big tumble and partial recovery in the past several days, may shake consumer confidence and cause delays in home purchases. Exacerbating the problem is a slowdown in new housing construction that has lagged behind demand.

“A lack of supply is what’s driving the home prices up,” said John Burns, an analyst at the Meyers Group, an Irvine real estate research firm. In California, new home starts are at near all-time lows in part because builders face land use restrictions and environmental barriers, he said.

Nationwide, federal statistics show that new housing starts fell 11% last month, the sharpest drop for a March in six years.

In high-priced Orange County, broker Pablo Velasquez has a tough time finding homes for clients in the $180,000 to $215,000 range. “That is the toughest price range because that is what most people are looking for,” said Velasquez of Advance Realty in Santa Ana. Many end up going inland to Corona or Chino Hills for less expensive housing.

Among Southern California households with incomes of more than $100,000, purchases of larger homes--those at 2,000 square feet and up--are growing by a robust 8% annually, according to a study by real estate consultant Dennis Macheski in Newport Beach.

Those buyers have helped push up median prices statewide to $231,710, only slightly off the all-time high of $233,000 reached in January, according to the latest California Assn. of Realtors report.

Some brokers said that a lack of supply is causing such a tight market that they’re now seeing multiple offers. In the Arcadia area, Baldwin Real Estate Services typically offers 300 properties for sale, but it now has only about 80, said Gordon Maddock, the company’s president.

Median prices of new homes in both Orange and Los Angeles counties led the surge in overall prices in March.

In Orange County, new homes rose 21% to $367,000 over the previous March. Existing houses jumped by 11% to $279,000, and condos increased 7% to $169,000, according to the Acxiom report.

In Los Angeles County, new homes grew 8.5% over the previous March to $273,000, while resale houses increased 5% to $197,000. Prices of existing condos showed the only decline in the area, dropping less than 1% to $150,000, the report said.

* HOME SALES

A Zip Code-by-Zip Code look at home sales throughout the county. B4

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Orange County Home Sales

Orange County’s median home price surged 12% in March to $260,000. Sales jumped 6.9% to 4,754. Sales, median price and median price per square foot for new and resale homes and condominiums, by ZIP Code:

All-Time High

Highest Orange County median home prices:*

1999

Sept.: $245,000

Nov.: 247,000

Dec.: 258,000

2000

Jan.: 251,000

Feb.: 250,000

Mar.: 260,000

Source: DataQuik

*Includes new and resale homes and condominiums in Orange County