More Home Bargains Are On Orange County’s Horizon
How do I know this? Because, according to this blog post on the O.C. Register’s Lansner on Real Estate blog, 43.3% of homes on the market in Orange County are distressed — that is, either REOs or short sales. Whoa!
At the same time last year, the same source — Steve Thomas of Altera Real Estate — reported that distressed properties made up just 12% of the O.C.’s housing inventory. That’s a huge jump in just 12 months.
Many of the short-sale homes will no doubt enter foreclosure, then come back on the market at greatly reduced prices. This means that prices have farther to fall, and that there will no shortage of bargains on the market in the next one to two years, at least.
Not surprisingly, distressed properties are highest in the less-popular areas and lowest in the most sought-after areas. Here’s a chart from the blog with more details. Some highlights:
- 64% of all O.C. homes for sale under $500,000 are distressed. The percentage decreases dramatically as the sales price rises: For example, only 20% of homes priced between $500K and $750K are distressed.
- The cities with the most distressed properties are Santa Ana (79%), Anaheim (75%) and Garden Grove (71%). The cities with the least: Corona del Mar (2%) and Seal Beach (3%).
- Condos and townhomes (51%) are more distressed than single-family homes (39%).
Three-quarters of all homes for sale in Santa Ana and Anaheim are distressed? That’s a huge number. You can see the enormity of the situation yourself if you go to redfin.com and type in an Anaheim or Santa Ana ZIP code. It will take no time at all to find properties that are listed for hundreds of thousands less than just two years ago. Like this Anaheim house, sold for $535,000 three years ago and now on the market for $309,000.
Sad for the people who are losing their homes, but good news for those who are priced out. The overpriced and underwater homes have to work their way out of the market before it can return to any kind of normalcy.
Recent Redfin posts:
The Evolving IBC—Diamond Jamboree Center Comes to Irvine’s Live-Work-Play District
Just How Bad Is It?
Tustin: Follow-Up on New Parking Ordinances
