Home Bargain-Hunters Too Late for Oak View
The village of Oak View, once a bargain for those who couldn’t afford a house in Ventura or Ojai, gained the most from Ventura County’s sharp real estate run-up the last two years.
South Oxnard gained the least.
But every Ventura County seller gained a lot.
As a regional real estate boom kicked in its superchargers, the median price of a home or condo soared by nearly one-quarter, or $66,000, in two years.
An analysis of county home sales in 2001 and 2002 shows that 4,200-resident Oak View, a mix of aging houses and hilltop estates, biker neighborhoods and executive enclaves, lured buyers to such a degree that the value of a typical house jumped by nearly half in just two years -- a gain of about $100,000.
There, along the Ventura River, a house that cost $235,000 in 2000 sold for $335,000 in 2002.
Twenty miles away, near the coast, the older suburban tracts of southern Oxnard went up too, but by only $38,500 in 24 months.
From the rolling subdivisions of east Camarillo to the field-side flats of rural Fillmore, the homeowners who make up two-thirds of Ventura County households prospered through equity gains averaging $19,000 in 2001, and an additional $47,000 last year, according to DataQuick Information Services.
By December 2002, the county’s median home price -- where half sell for more and half for less -- was $348,000.
A study of 34,201 house and condominium sales broken down by ZIP Codes shows that Oak View’s stunning two-year gain was followed by price spikes of between $80,000 and $95,000 in east Camarillo, Oak Park, central and east Ventura and the Westlake-Lake Sherwood area near Thousand Oaks.
Santa Barbara graphic artist Tracy Smith, 44, knew the market was high, but she couldn’t resist a longtime urge to buy.
So now she’s waiting for escrow to close on a 1,300-square-foot home on a small lot across from Sunset Elementary School in Oak View.
She is part of the “Santa Barbara invasion” that, according to one study, has brought 17,000 workers down the coast to buy a house in western Ventura County, where the median price is still only half that in south Santa Barbara County.
“It’s just too expensive to buy a house in Santa Barbara,” Smith said. “So a lot of my friends bought houses in Oak View and are commuting. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
Smith wanted to buy a couple of years ago but only now has the down payment.
“My friend bought in Oak View last year for $265,000,” she said. “Now I’m buying a smaller home for $375,000.”
Smith paid full price for her new house. It had been on the market for only a few days, she said. And she might have been lucky not to dawdle.
Real estate agent Josie Ralstin can testify to that. She sold a nearby Oak View home recently in one day, and had 25 inquiries about the property within hours of listing it.
Not that the house was anything special: a three-bedroom, one-bath cottage of 1,098 square feet built in 1958. The sellers were retired and entering a nursing home. It took them one morning to get nearly all of their $348,500 asking price.
“I’ve been in sales for 21 years now, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ralstin said. “It is kind of scary. The buyers are coming in from just all over. They’ve usually lost two or three homes and are frustrated because everything sells so fast.”
Fred Evans, a west county real estate broker, said Oak View, Santa Paula and Fillmore have all felt the effects of Santa Barbara’s interest in Ventura County homes.
“Ventura is now unaffordable, and Ojai is too expensive for first-time buyers,” Evans said. “So they’re pushed out to Oak View and Meiners Oaks. Little houses are about $350,000 now.”
Such prices are not untouchable for young buyers, Evans said, only because interest rates are so low that even a $300,000 loan at 6% carries a monthly payment of just $1,800. And there are lots of ways to bring that down.
Even so, “It’s kind of sad because we’re going to see more foreclosures,” Evans said. “I see notices every week, and foreclosures are on the rise. I’ve got 10 pages of defaults in front of me.”
Overall, Ventura County home sales were the highest last year since 1988, easily topping 2001, which had been the best year since the ‘80s.
But while the previous year’s sales were marked by particularly high demand in the white-collar commuter cities of the east county, last year saw the same intensity build in the semirural western county.
Indeed, the county’s largest one-year gain in prices occurred in the geographical center of the populated county in east Camarillo. New subdivisions starting at $450,000 a house drove the median sales price up $76,000 in 2002.
“It’s just part of how the market is,” said Jim Bizzelle, regional director of community development for Pardee Homes. “The shortage of homes has created demand for more housing in Ventura County, and prices are going up.”
Pardee sold about 140 new homes in Camarillo last year and has regularly hiked prices to reflect the marketplace, Bizzelle said.
At one Pardee subdivision, a buyer can still get a 1,700-square-foot home for a base price of $450,000, Bizzelle said.
“Camarillo offers a true family lifestyle,” he said. And lots of buyers commute from there to the San Fernando Valley.
While Camarillo’s prices rose quickest last year, affluent Thousand Oaks had the most home sales, thanks partly to construction at the huge Dos Vientos project in Newbury Park.
Thousand Oaks had 3,653 sales in 2002, while a second east-county city, the more affordable Simi Valley, had 3,095. That compares with 3,077 in Oxnard, the county’s largest city, and 2,209 in growth-constricted Ventura, which had far fewer new houses to sell.
Small portions of the county remained relatively affordable.
The median price of a home in Port Hueneme, which has an unusually high proportion of condos, was $210,000. And nearby south Oxnard had a median price of $217,500.
Even in the Santa Clara Valley farm towns of Fillmore and Santa Paula, which have traditionally lagged behind the rest of the market, two-year equity gains exceeded $50,000.
Yet a typical house could still be bought in Fillmore for $257,000 and for $220,000 in Santa Paula.
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Home sales by city
*--* City 2001 2002 Thousand Oaks 3,264 3,653 Simi Valley 3,153 3,095 Oxnard 2,730 3,077 Ventura 1,934 2,209 Camarillo 1,586 1,789 Moorpark 792 1,007 Port Hueneme 556 531 Ojai 355 389 Santa Paula 366 367 Fillmore 327 254
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Note: Sales reflect closed escrows on houses and condominiums within city limits, and in some cases, adjacent unincorporated areas.
Source: Dataquick Information Systems
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Rising prices
Annual sales and median prices for real estate in Ventura County in 2002 compared to the previous year. The figures include new and resale homes and condominiums.
*--* Median Median Sales Sales Prices Prices City name ZIP Code 2001 2002 2001 2002 Camarillo 93010 770 869 $290,000 $336,250 93012 816 920 $289,000 $365,000 Fillmore 93015 327 254 $230,000 $257,000 Moorpark 93021 792 1,007 $312,000 $355,000 Oak Park 91377 428 534 $375,000 $410,000 Oak View 93022 117 109 $261,000 $335,000 Ojai 93023 355 389 $324,500 $360,000 Oxnard 93030 1,151 1,319 $240,000 $292,750 93033 878 1,008 $189,000 $217,500 93035 701 750 $271,000 $315,000 Port Hueneme 93041 556 531 $181,000 $210,000 Santa Paula 93060 366 367 $185,000 $220,000 Simi Valley 93063 1,365 1,263 $266,000 $295,250 93065 1,788 1,832 $265,000 $312,000 Thousand Oaks 91320 1,204 1,292 $378,000 $415,000 91360 761 888 $298,000 $342,750 91361 303 333 $423,500 $480,000 91362 996 1,140 $385,000 $436,000 Ventura 93001 559 569 $240,250 $300,000 93003 969 1,098 $260,000 $318,000 93004 406 542 $289,000 $340,000 Countywide 15,608 17,014 $278,000 $325,000
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Source: Dataquick Information Systems Inc.Note: Countywide totals include sales with unknown ZIP Codes. Median prices include unincorporated areas not shown.
