All Blog Entries by Hartanov Real Estate Team

Orange County Housing Report:  November Housing Heat Wave

With an astonishingly limited supply of available homes to purchase matched up with blistering hot demand due to record low mortgage Rates, the overall housing market in Orange County is insanely hot.

Hot November Housing

With an Expected Market Time of only 23 days, the Orange County housing market is hotter than it has ever been for this time of the year. 

Housing has been dealing with an unrelenting heat wave of its own since last year. After coming out of the COVID lockdown protocols, the inventory dropped, demand soared, and housing reached record breaking temperatures from July through the end of 2020. It never cooled. In fact, the 37-day Expected Market Time reached in…

Orange County Housing Report:  Housing Insanity: When Will It End?

The residential resale housing market has been at an unrelenting, torrid, insane pace since July of last year, and, seemingly, nothing will slow it down.

Interest Rates Juicing the Market

Historically low rates have led to the Expected Market Time dropping to 23 days, the lowest level for this time of year since tracking began in 2004.

For buyers waiting for the market to slow and turn more favorably towards the home shopper, there seems to be no light at the end of tunnel. Housing has lined up in favor of sellers since 2012. Many thought that the pandemic would slow housing, create a deep recession, and erode home values, giving buyers that much desired edge. Instead,…

Orange County Housing Report:  Luxury Soars

Luxury housing emerged from the lockdowns of COVID-19 with unbelievable strength and has reached unprecedented levels.

 A Hot Luxury Market:  In 2021, one in six closed sales were luxury.

In 2021, the real estate marked evolved further, from red hot to white hot. Overnight, the real estate industry had become accustomed to throngs of showings, multiple offers, and homes selling for more than their asking prices. A surprising twist was that the luxury housing market surged right along with the lower price ranges and at a record pace.

What sparked the wave of luxury sales? The run-up on Wall Street has certainly helped. After the S&P plunged 32% at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020,…

Housing will shift to the Holiday Market in just 7-weeks and buyer and seller activity will plunge to its lowest levels of the year.

End of Year Expectations

Seven more weeks until the slowest season of the year starts, the Holiday Market.

From now through the week before Thanksgiving, it is the LAST HURRAH before housing transitions from the Autumn Market to the Holiday Market, the slowest time of the year for real estate in terms of supply and demand. The holidays are filled with distractions. As a result, the hunt for a home takes a back seat for many buyers and fewer homeowners take advantage of selling their homes regardless of how incredibly hot the rest of the year will be for real estate. The overall speed of the market cools…

The insane housing market has been frustrating buyers for more than a year now with unbelievable, relentless competition, making it exceedingly difficult to secure a home.

Buyers Should Not Give Up

The housing market will remain a Hot Seller’s Market for some time and home values will continue to rise.

The housing market has been extremely hot since June of last year and has not let up ever since. Buyers are faced with crowds of interest on just about every home that is placed on the market. Multiple offers are the norm. Homes selling for above their list prices is the norm. Homes instantly selling is the norm. It is tough to be a buyer looking to purchase in today’s housing market. It feels as if they are constantly against the ropes in a…

The Autumn Market is officially here and with it typically comes a drop in the supply of available homes to purchase, falling demand, and the overall speed of the market remains the same.

Autumn Market

Expect less activity with fewer homes coming on the market and fewer buyers looking to find a home.

It is no longer the “prime time” season for real estate. The Spring and Summer Markets are in the rearview mirror. Housing will now shift gears and transition to a slower time of the year. Despite how hot the market has been, this year will be no different. The inventory, demand, and closed sales will all fall, and the Expected Market Time (the time between hammering in the FOR-SALE sign to opening escrow) will not change much at all.…

Although home values have been skyrocketing at a record  pace, eating into affordability, the housing market is not going to cool anytime soon. 

Housing Will Remain Hot

The Expected Market Time has remained at unprecedented low levels and will not budge much for the remainder of the year.

 Everybody looks forward to the Super Bowl. It is not just the excitement surrounding championship football, or the extravagant, over-the-top television commercials, or getting together with family and friends to enjoy the game. It is also about the bountiful feast, the plethora of food options. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, several varieties of chips, nachos, chili-cheese dip, spinach-artichoke dip, cheese, crackers, nuts, pretzels, beer, soda,…

Orange County Housing Report:Forbearance, Foreclosures, Facts

Seemingly everyone is expecting a wave of foreclosure due to forbearance, yet taking a closer look at the facts reveals that it simply in not going to happen

The Distressed Market

Fewer homeowners are opting to sell despite homes appreciating to record levels.

The general public fears that the national forbearance program will lead to a wave of foreclosures and cause chaos in today’s sizzling hot real estate market. Everyone has heard of the vast number of homeowners who have turned to forbearance during the pandemic amidst economic shutdowns and slowdowns. Forbearance allowed borrowers to pause their payments. Repayment of the missed payments can be done all at once, with a…

Ever since the Great Recession, far fewer homeowners have been selling their homes annually, and now even fewer areopting to participate in selling their homes.

Lack of Sellers

Fewer homeowners are opting to sell despite homes appreciating to record levels.

Homeowners across the nation watched the housing market take a brutal pounding during the Great Recession as their equity vanished in a blink. Many lost their homes to foreclosures or short sales. As a result, remain in their homes for a lot longer. There are fewer homeowners who opt to sell every year, and even with record home values, the trend continues.

It is not just an Orange County phenomenon or isolated to just Southern California. Nor is it unique to the state of California. A…

Potential buyers are being fooled into thinking it is not a good time to purchase and are delaying their plans, ignoring economic facts.

Housing’s Strength

The housing boom has everything to do with supply and demand, and those fundamental features are not going to change anytime soon.

When housing is surging with seemingly no end in sight, society cannot help but flashback to 2001 through 2006. In 2004 and 2005, the Case-Shiller U.S. Home Price Index showed red-hot home price appreciation between 10% and 14.5%. Everybody knows what happened next, the housing bubble eventually popped and led to double-digit home price depreciation in 2008 and 2009. In May of this year, U.S. home price appreciation reached 14.6%, its highest level since…