Orange County Housing Report: Boiling Over

Fierce demand, throngs of buyer tours, bidding wars, rapid appreciation, and limited available homes to purchase are all due to historically low rates.

Insatiable Demand

With a record low supply of homes available to purchase and staggering demand, the market is extremely hot. 

When a commodity drops to a price that is too good to pass up, everybody flocks to purchase. That is precisely what is occurring in housing. It is not that home values have plunged by 40%; instead, it is historically low mortgage rates that are the catalyst to surging demand. As a result, buyers are coming out in droves to purchase. It is too good to pass up. For a $700,000 mortgage at last year’s 3.6% fixed rate, the…

Orange County Housing Report: Blazing Beginning 

To go along with record low mortgage rates, it is the hottest start to a year since tracking began in 2004.

Hot Seller’s Market

With a record low supply of homes available to purchase and staggering demand, the market is extremely hot.

There is an imbalance in supply and demand. The supply of homes is at a record low and demand is off the charts. As a result, the market has been hot from day one of 2021. The only other time that occurred was back in 2013. What 2013 and 2021 have in common are record low mortgage rates. On January 3, 2013, mortgage rates were at 3.34%, slightly higher than the record low 3.31% achieved on November 21, 2012. On January 7, 2021, according to the Primary…

Orange County Housing Report: A 2021 Forecast

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  Now, what does that mean for the Orange County Real Estate?

First, let us look back at what happened in 2020 in terms of the inventory, demand, luxury properties and the Expected Market Time.

Active Inventory

After starting the year with very few available homes to purchase, the inventory only grew slightly, plunging to unbelievably low levels during the second half of the year.

COVID-19 suppressed the inventory in Orange County. Many homeowners simply did not want to place their homes on the market amid a pandemic. From March through June, there were 4,655 fewer home placed on the market compared to the five-year average, 29% less. The Coronavirus lost its grip on…