OC Market Summary

· The active listing inventory increased by 145 homes, or 3%, in the past couple of weeks, its largest rise of the year to date. It now totals 4,716. There are 9% fewer homes that have come on the market so far this year compared to 2016. The inventory will continue to steadily rise through the Spring Market, from now through mid-June.

· There are 45% fewer homes on the market below $500,000 compared to last year at this time and demand is down by 26%. Fewer and fewer homes and condominiums can now be found priced below $500,000. This price range is slowly vanishing.

· Demand, the number of pending sales over the prior month, increased by 3% in the past couple of weeks, increasing by 88 and now totals 2,664. Today’s demand is 8% lower than last year when it totaled 2,896. The average pending price is $834,848.

· The average list price for all of Orange County is $1.7 million, identical to two weeks ago. This number is high due to the mix of homes in the luxury ranges that sit on the market and do not move as quickly as the lower end.

· For homes priced below $750,000, the market is HOT with an expected market time of just 32 days. This range represents 36% of the active inventory and 62% of demand.

· For homes priced between $750,000 and $1 million, the expected market time is 51 days, a seller’s market (less than 60 days). This range represents 19% of the active inventory and 20% of demand.

· For luxury homes priced between $1 million to $1.5 million, the expected market time is at 86 days, decreasing by 1 in the past couple of weeks. For homes priced between $1.5 million to $2 million, the expected market time decreased from 133 to 116 days. For luxury homes priced above $2 million, the expected market time decreased from 252 to 235 days.

· The luxury end, all homes above $1 million, accounts for 45% of the inventory and only 18% of demand.

· The expected market time for all homes in Orange County remained the same at 53 days, a solid seller’s market (less than 60 days).

· Distressed homes, both short sales and foreclosures combined, make up only 1.7% of all listings and 3% of demand. There are only 26 foreclosures and 53 short sales available to purchase today in all of Orange County, that’s 79 total distressed homes on the active market, 2 more than two weeks ago, an increase of 3%. Last year there were 140 total distressed sales, 77% more.

· There were 1,879 closed sales in February, a 1% drop from January, but more than the 1,847 closed sales posted in February 2016. The sales to list price ratio was 97.3% for all of Orange County. Foreclosures accounted for just 1.2% of all closed sales and short sales accounted for 1.9%. That means that 96.9% of all sales were good ol’ fashioned equity sellers.