March 2017 Orange County Real Estate Market Report
Welcome Back, I’m Jeb Smith, Real Estate Broker with ReMax Terrasol here in Huntington Beach with your southern California Real Estate Market Report for March 2017. As we approach St. Patrick’s Day and the beginning of our Spring Market we would expect to see our local inventory start to build but the lack of available homes on the market is creating somewhat of a frenzy for Buyers while Sellers are reaping the benefits.
For those of you interested in the actual market statistics, I have provided a link here.
As most of you know, there has been a serious supply shortage dating back to 2012 and this year is much of the same. The supply issue that I’m referring to is the supply of active homes on the market that are available for sell at any given time. Usually during the start of the spring market, inventory begins a steady rise but this year is a little different as we are seeing as many homes go into escrow as are coming on the market which is causing our available inventory to stagnate leaving Buyers wondering if they will ever find the perfect home. The biggest problem we are facing with regards to available homes is that those Sellers wanting to sell are looking at the available homes to purchase and are hesitant to pull the trigger, worrying about not having a place to go if their home sales. If you are a Seller in this position, rest assured you are not alone. Get in touch with your Realtor to discuss possible options so that you can take advantage of the low supply and receive top dollar while the market is HOT.
How does all of this affect you as a Buyer or Seller in our local market? Strong demand coupled with a low supply means that the real estate market favors sellers, not buyers. With extremely favorable interest rates and continuing buyer demand, we expect the market will continue to move sideways to slightly up. Homes priced under $750K seem to be moving the quickest with luxury homes taking a little bit longer to sell, although the days on the market for this price range seem to be getting shorter and shorter as well.
As you know, all Real Estate is local, so if you are a Buyer, Seller or Investor in Today’s market and you have questions, I would love the opportunity to help guide you in the right direction. If you would like more information about me, please go to my website www.jebsmith.net or check out my other videos on YouTube. As always, I appreciate you taking the time to watch and I look forward to seeing you again next month. Make it a great day.
Jeb
I’m in the market for a new home. Possibly a cash fixer upper or foreclose in OC. My concern with a more turnkey is what looks like a change coming in the OC market. The pending sales are way off from a year ago. China is restricting cash out flows, and rates are climbing. The China factor may mean OC will se a different trend not unlike Vancouver (as a result of a new tax). Do you have any forward insight to the OC market? What is your knowledge of the distressed market?
Chuck
Good morning Chuck and thanks for the message. Honestly the distressed market in Orange County is somewhat non-existant these days due to values coming back to all time highs in most areas. There are obviously some out there but they are few and far between and honestly aren’t coming up very often. Our pending sales could be off due to the fact that inventory remains very low therefore buyers can’t go into escrow on homes that aren’t on the market. Right now, buyer demand remains high which in turn is keeping our inventory levels low. I expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future especially with interest rates still near their lows. There is a lot of talk that inventory will continue to remain low until builders can start building again to help out with the shortage of inventory and as you know there isn’t a lot of places to build in OC which in turn isn’t going to really help us any time soon. I do believe at some point prices have to level off a bit due how far we’ve come with wages not increasing but I think we have a few more years of this cycle before we really start to see anything like that take place. However, I don’t see anything happening like 2007 as loans are a lot more difficult to qualify for these days and most people have equity. Anyway, I hope that helps and I would love the opportunity to help you as well so please reach out at 714.376.2711 or jeb@jebsmith.net when you have time. I look forward to your response.