Live Lake Forest

Here is a quick overview of the Lake Forest real estate market today (all numbers are from the SoCalMLS ):

Our inventory of both homes and condos is very low right now, with the absorbtion rate under 2 months for homes, and less than a month for condos!  The 52 closed sales in the last month were very close to the final list prices, and the average price of a condo was actually a little bit more than the list price.

This time of year, the market generally slows down as people get settled in for the start of the school year, but with the first time buyer tax credit deadline of November 30th, it may stay busy for a while longer.  Escrows are generally taking 40 to 60 days to close, due to the new appraisal and mortgage disclosure regulations, so if you want that first time buyer bonus, you better choose your house and be in escrow by early October!

Want to know what your house is worth?

Check my foreclosure lists by City (updated 4 times per day!)

Search through all the homes on the MLS

If you have any questions, or want any help, please call me!   (949) 457-0281

Thanks for visiting!

I have been busy lately with both buyers and sellers and some personal activities and have, unfortunately, failed to update this blog as often as I should.  I promise to get back on a regular schedule of providing info, even if I have to make it briefer than I like (just so you know that I’m still keeping an eye on the market.)

The market in Lake Forest and all of South Orange County is definitely busier now than we have seen in the last 2 years.  Our supply of available homes is very low, and the number of buyers is high resulting in multiple offers being fairly common for properties priced under $550K.  The DataQuick and Case-Shiller reports also came out with numbers this week that median prices have stabilized, and in some places are even rising a bit.  A lot of the recent activity has probably been generated by the first time buyers trying to find their home and get their $8,000 tax credit before it runs out on November 30th.  (The National Association of Realtors is pushing for this to be extended and expanded, but my bet is that it will expire and possibly come back again after a month or two.)

I am currently working with several buyers who qualify as “first timers” who actually sold close to the top of the market in 2005, or early 2006, and have been sitting on the sidelines renting until now.  They seem to think now is the time to get back in, and are scouring the market looking for the dream home that they wouldn’t buy in 2006, but can now afford at a much lower price and interest rate!

Prices in Lake Forest are currently about 40% lower than the highs reached in 2005-2006 when loans were easy and nobody worried about making payments in the long term.  The simple formula was to get as much house as you could [pretend to] afford, stay for 2 years to avoid capital gains tax, then sell it for $200,000 more than you paid.  If you couldn’t really make the payments, it wasn’t a big deal because you could call your friendly lender and get another HELOC loan on it and immediately have enough money to buy a new Hummer, a big screen TV, and money left over for your next 12 months of house payments.

I was busy playing with a lot of housing statistics (nerding out) on Tuesday when I got a call from my friend Erika Ritchie at the Orange County Register.  She told me that she heard that Lake Forest was the fastest selling city in the entire Orange County last month, and she wanted to know what I thought about that.  I ended up sharing with her some of the statistics that I had been planning to share with you here, so  instead of duplicating the info, I decided to simply link to her article and you can read it there.

Want to know what your house is worth?

Check my foreclosure lists by City (updated 4 times per day!)

Search through all the homes on the MLS

If you have any questions, or want any help, please call me!   (949) 457-0281

Thanks for visiting!

For the month of April 2009, the sales volume in Lake Forest was up again compared to the same period last year.  There were a total of 63 closed sales in the MLS, a 12.5% improvement to the 56 in April 2008.  The prices were substantially lower though. 

The 29 sales of single family homes ranged from the low of $305,000 to a high of $702,500 and averaged $432,160 at $235/square foot, a decline of more than 21%. 

The low SFR closing for the month was $305,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,250 square foot bank owned home.  It was only on the market one day, and sold for $1,000 over list price.  

The prior MLS sale of this house was in the summer of 2005, for a price of $624,900.  It was on the market 17 days that time, but sold for the full asking price.  From the title company records, it appears that the house was sold again in August of 2006, for $730,000!  The loans recorded at that time indicate there was a 10% down payment, and 2 loans that came to $657,000 in financing.  Since that sale occured off the MLS, I can’t determine how close to asking price, or how long it was on the market that time.

Condo sales in April ranged from $100,000 up to $324,900 with a median price of $180,000 and an average of $189,605 ($187/square foot).  The 34 sales were made up of 2 traditional sales, 4 post-foreclosure flips, and the other 28 were either short sales or bank-owned.

Lake Forest sellers are having a tough time adjusting to the realities of today’s market.  There are currently 421 active properties in the MLS, and 95 of those (22%) are either foreclosed or short sales.  The short sales, in many cases are not really available because it is unknown in if the mortgage holder will agree to discount the loan to avoid foreclosure.   

The pricing now starts at $194,900 for a single story, one-bedroom condo that is bank-owned.  There is now a 2-bedroom, 2 bath condo available for $224,900, that is also a bank-owned property.  A 2-bedroom townhome, with almost 1200 square feet and a single car garage is available as an “approved short sale” for $289,000.  The best condo on a price-per-square foot basis is another bank-owned 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, with 1550 square feet for $369,900.

The lowest priced single family home is now available for $438,900 and it appears to be in attractive condition.  (It is not a short sale, or bank-owned!)  There are currently 7 other single family homes priced under $500,000 available today.

With interest rates at the lowest level in over 6 months, and competitively priced homes becoming available, I am predicting the activity level to pick up significantly in the near future.  I don’t believe the prices will drop enough to attract many investors, but for owner occupants, the outlook is the best I have seen for a long time!

I specialize in Lake Forest, but work the entire Orange County area, and know of many competitively priced properties in other Orange County cities.  If you have been waiting for some good buying opportunities, please contact me (Vicki@VickiLloyd.com) as soon as possible to help you find the right one!