Explore Properties at Southern California: Orange County Beach Area Homes Twice as Hard to Sell

Jon Lansner at Orange County Register posted an article about the OC housing market time at: Beach homes twice as hard to sell - June 4th, 2010.

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Steve Thomas at Altera Real Estate follows “market time” — the supply of Orange County homes for sale vs. new purchase deals inked in past month (theoretically, how long it would take to sell all inventory at current buying pace.) His latest O.C. home inventory report says that as of May 28 …

Hottest	Supply	Deals	Mon.	Yr. ago	Price
Foothill Ranch	37	25	1.5	2.1	$538k
Rancho Santa Marg.	159	104	1.5	1.5	$390k
Dove Canyon	19	11	1.7	5.1	$801k
Cypress	94	52	1.8	2.2	$492k
Anaheim	433	232	1.9	1.7	$367k
County	Supply	Deals	Mon.	Yr. ago	Price
All of O.C.	9,839	3,303	3.0	2.9	$1.0m
Coolest	Supply	Deals	Mon.	Yr. ago	Price
Laguna Beach	376	33	11.4	11.0	$3.5m
Newport Beach	581	71	8.2	11.8	$2.3m
Corona Del Mar	180	27	6.7	13.2	$3.1m
Laguna Woods	397	64	6.2	7.3	$217k
Newport Coast	149	28	5.3	19.5	$4.5m

Beach-close towns tracked by Thomas had a collective market time of 5.37 months last week vs. 2.51 months for the rest of the county. Thus, it’s theoretically 2.1 times harder to sell a seaside house.
20% of the communities tracked by Thomas had “market times” of less than 2 months, a clear sellers’ market in Thomas’ eyes. Four weeks ago? 43%.
The “hardest” O.C. town to find a home to buy in terms of “market time” is Foothill Ranch at 1.5 months to theoretically sell all for-sale homes at the current buying pace. A year ago, this town was at 2.1 months.
The 5 “hardest to buy” markets combined have a market time of 1.8 months and comprised 8% of the supply of homes for sale and 13% of homes in escrow.
“Hardest” market to sell a home in, based on the same math, is Laguna Beach with market time at 11.4 months to theoretically sells all for-sale homes at the current buying pace. A year ago, this town was at 11.0 months.
The 5 “hardest to sell” markets have a combined market time of 7.5 months and were 17% of the supply of homes for sale and 7% of homes in escrow.
All told, countywide market time was 3.0 months last week.
Chart at right looks at the 5 hottest and 5 coldest markets in O.C. as of last Thursday (supply for sale; new deals made; market time in months vs. a year ago and average listing price) by Thomas’ market time math.