Live Lake Forest

The foreclosed homes in Orange County seem to be selling like “hot cakes.”  So far this year, 2442 homes that were taken back in foreclosure have been sold and recycled back to buyers.  The inventory of Orange County foreclosed homes on the MLS has dropped from 865 a month ago, to 674 today.

There are rumors that this is the “calm before the storm” because the FannieMae and FredieMac mortatoriums expired on 3/31, so more homes are expected to be foreclosed in the next few months.  My data sources of information about homes in the foreclosure process runs about 2 weeks behind reality, so I won’t have much indication of the true impact of this for a little while still.

For the 2442 properties that have closed so far this year, the average sale price is $328,238 ($209/square foot.)  They sold in an average of 43 days on the market at 99% of the final list price.  Many of the lenders, and their REO specialist agents, have stimulated the sales of REOs by listing them significantly below recent comps.  This, generally, has created a lot of buyer interest, and many have sold for over list price after receiving multiple offers.

I just updated all the links to foreclosed homes that are listed in the MLS, so check your favorite areas to see if you can find a bargain!

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The numbers are in, and the real estate market in Lake Forest, California is definitely more active this year than last year when only 28 properties were sold.  Sales more than doubled with 69 closed sales in Lake Forest for the month of March 2009.  The prices ranged from a low of $122,000 for a one-bedroom condo, up to $711,000 for a 3 bedroom lake front home. 

The average price (add up all the sold prices, and divide by the 69 properties that sold) was $339,168, or $231 per square foot.   This was down almost 20% from the average price of $412,000 and $276 per square foot in March 2008.  The house pictured below is the closest to the average, but really closed at $325,000 after being reduced from an original list of $379,000. 

The median price of the closed sales was $370,000, at $323.14/square foot!  (To find the median, list all properties in order of sale price, and find the middle value, which was the #35 property.)  That property was a bank-owned home and was listed for $325,500 and sold in 7 days!  Note to bargain hunters – just because it is bank-owned, doesn’t mean that other people might not want to bid the price up!  

Check back tomorrow when I will get into the details and comparisons of the single family home and condo markets.

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