Orange County CA Housing Market Continues to favor sellers.
Housing at Orange County has lined up in favor of sellers for years now and is due to a low inventory of homes available to purchase coupled with strong demand boosted by historically low mortgage rates.
It is tough buying a home in today’s housing market. A couple browses home after home until they find one worth seeing.
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After scheduling a showing, they write an offer to purchase because the house would be perfect for their growing family. It meets all of their requirements and it has the added bonus of a downstairs bedroom. Excitement and anticipation are in the air as they wait for a response. Their enthusiasm begins to dim as they find out that there are nine additional offers on their “perfect” home. After going back and forth with the seller, the buyers learn that they were not the winning bidder on the home. Then buyers must to go back to the drawing board and wait for next opportunity.
This scenario plays out repeatedly across the United States, not just in Orange County. Many buyers find success, just not immediately.
Other buyers, especially in the lower price ranges, write offers over and over again, but just cannot seem to get one of them accepted. It is frustrating and many buyers come to a point where they simply want to give up. Should they wait until the market slows and tilts more in the buyer’s favor? Will it get easier anytime soon? Unfortunately, it will not get any easier and it does not make sense to wait to purchase.
What is going on is simple supply and demand. The active inventory has been at low levels ever since 2012 and a few times has dropped to unprecedented lows. From November 2012 through May 2013, and from December 2017 through February 2018, there were less than 4,000 homes available to purchase. It has only occurred twice since 2004, until this year.
The Orange County active listing inventory dipped below 4,000 at the end of October this year 2020. The New Year will start with fewer homes than 2013. So the inventory in 2021 will be below 4,000 into the Spring Market.
Some information for this post is based upon that provided by OC Housing Report.
By Christi Anthony Long, Professional real estate representative and REALTOR®. Contact by cell at 949-212-5427. Associated with HomeSmart Evergreen Realty. CALBRE 01438859.
ATTENTION BUYERS: Do not wait to purchase. Delaying a purchase will result in higher prices and higher mortgage rates, cutting into home affordability.
The countywide median selling price was $732,750 — up 3.2% over 12 months. This latest median is 1% off the county’s record high of $740,000 set in October 2018.
