March City/Neighborhood Price Reductions

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. The downloadable Excel file also includes charts showing the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings.

First up are the top ten cities with the most price-reduced listings:

Of the 40 cities/towns we ranked in Orange County this month, 21 (53%) had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Much of the top ten was the same as last month, with the familiar names Rossmoor, Coto de Caza, and San Clemente coming in the top three positions.

Getting a little more granular, let’s look at the top ten Orange County neighborhoods for price reductions:

Of the 42 neighborhoods we ranked in Orange County this month, 16 (38%) had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. The Highlands shot from #3 last month (with 63% reduced) to #1 this month with a whopping 74% reduced. Various Huntington Beach neighborhoods also made repeat appearances in the top ten. These are the neighborhoods where you might want to look for sellers that are more anxious to sell.

We’re still seeing a degree of consistency in which neighborhoods and cities have the most price reductions. Are sellers in these locations just not very good at finding the right market price in the first place, or are they so anxious to sell that they drop the price early and often? Either way, the regions with the really high percentage of reduced-price homes are probably a good place to go bargain-hunting.