January 27, 2009
I apologize again for the multi-week radio silence here. We’ve revamped our data delivery to be able to better streamline the whole process, and from now on there will be a regular schedule of in-depth data in this space. For now though, it’s time for our monthly check-in of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI). Here’s a summary of the Los Angeles area, which includes LA and Orange Counties:
November 2008
Month to Month: Down 2.2%
Year to Year: Down 26.9%
Change from Peak: Down 35.8% in 26 months
Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: Signs of Eventual Stabilization in LA Home Prices?
January 10, 2009
Let’s take our monthly look at which cities and towns have the most price reductions.
The following charts show the percent of MLS, FSBO or REO listings that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days. Cities/towns or neighborhoods in which the number of homes taken off the market was too small to provide believable estimates are excluded from ranking.
For those that are interested, I have uploaded the full data set in Excel format here (saved in Excel 97-2003 .xls format by request). In order to keep from overwhelming you with charts, I am leaving out the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings from the post, but you can still see that chart in the downloaded file.
First up are the top ten cities with the most price-reduced listings:
Of the 41 cities/towns we ranked in Orange County this month, 22 had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Coto de Caza, Los Alamitos, and Rossmoor have consistently been in the top ten for the last three months.
Getting a little more granular, let’s look at the top ten Orange County neighborhoods for price reductions:
23 of the 47 neighborhoods we ranked in Orange County had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. Huntington Beach neighborhoods continued with a strong presence in the top ten for the third month in a row.
For home buyers, cities and neighborhoods that consistently remain near the top of the list for price reductions may be a good place to potentially hunt for bargains. Once a home has been on the market a while, many buyers tend to overlook it, even though a price reduction or two may have brought it into a more desirable price range.
