Sweet Orange

Orange County Housing Graphs Courtesy Redfin: inventory, house price per square foot, condos price per square foot

According to DataQuick, the most recent housing numbers for Orange County are as follows:

• Sales are up 5.7%: 5034 homes sold in February 2010 vs 4590 homes sold in February  2009.
• The median selling price was up 11.2%: $417,000 in February 2010 vs $375,000 in February 2009.

For comparison here are some Redfin numbers:

• Redfin reports that the number of Orange County homes that sold in December 2009 was 3401, up 30% from December 2008.
• The median selling price in December 2009 was $415,000, which is up 7.7% from their December 2008 number. Redfin also reports that the December 2009 median price per square foot was $270, which is also up (1.5%).

Note that the price per square foot suggests less of a price increase for Orange County housing than does the overall price.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has come out with the August housing numbers. They show a mixed-bag for the U.S. housing market:

U.S. Sales Numbers
U.S. housing sales in August were 5.1 million. This is a drop of 2.7% from the July number of 5.24 million and a drop of 30% from the peak, which was about four years ago. However, this is up 3.4% from this time last year and up 14% from the bottom which was in January.

According to NAR economist Lawrence Yun, a stable housing market cannot be claimed until U.S. home sales increase to about 5.5 to 6 million.

U.S. Median Sales Price
In August 2009, the median price for housing in the U.S. was $177,700. In July 2009, it was $178,400. The August 2009 number is down 12.5% from the August 2008 number.

U.S. Inventory
In August, 3.6 million homes were on the market. This is a decrease from the July number, which was 4 million. According to the NAR, if homes sell at the current pace, it will take 8.5 months to sell these homes. This is the shortest time in two year that analysts have predicted it will take to sell existing housing inventory.

Conclusion
The good news for anyone who wants to sell a house is that inventory is down when compared to last month and sales are up when compared to a year ago.

The bad news for anyone who wants to sell a house is that home sales need to increase substantially if we are to return to a stable market. In addition, housing analysts expected August housing sales to be larger than they were in July; instead, July home sales went down 2.7%.

This month-to-month sale decline has some wondering if we are in for a reverse in that has been an improving market for national housing sales. However, Paul Dales of Capital Economics thinks that this is not the case:

We suspect it is just a temporary blip in the improving trend rather than a sign of renewed weakness.

We’ll see…

Note: See the LA Land blog for additional information and a link to relevant housing charts and graphs.

Yesterday, we looked at housing numbers for some homes in the Orangetree neighborhoods, one of Irvine’s most affordable, if not the most affordable, areas. A few detached homes exist in Orangetree, but most homes are condos. According to Redfin, the current list price for a condo in Orangetree is $262 per square foot.

Today, we’ll take a look at Shady Canyon, which is at the other end of the Irvine housing market. Shady Canyon is the most expensive Irvine neighborhood and, as you might expect, contains detached homes only. According to Redfin, the current median list price for a home in Shady Canyon is $727 per square foot.

Following are some stats on Shady Canyon homes that sold in the last three months. A look at previous selling price and price reductions in Shady Canyon show that even the most expensive areas are affected by the housing market downturn.

12 Prairie Grass: 3 bedrooms/4 baths, 40977 SF, built in 2003

• sold for $2,500,000 on May 18, 2009
• listed in August 2008, numerous price reductions
• sold for $3,200,000 on May 3, 2006

For more pictures of 12 Prairie Grass, click here.

94 Canyon Creek: 5 bedrooms/7 baths, 8057 SF, built in 2008

• sold for $4,300,000 on April 16, 2009
• listed in January 2009, numerous price reductions
• at one time listed for $4,750,000

For more pictures of 94 Canyon Creek, click here.

59 Boulder: 5 bedrooms/6 baths, 6853 SF, built in 2007

• sold for $4,125,000 on June 5, 2009
• listed in February 2008, numerous price reductions
• at one time listed for $4,895,000

For more pictures of 59 Boulder Creek, click here.

For a look at more Irvine Shady Canyon numbers, see “Irvine’s Most Expensive Neighborhood, Shady Canyon: Housing Number Stats.”