Owner: The OC Coastal Real Estate Blog URL:http://www.occoastalblog.com Join Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:42:23 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The OC Coastal Real Estate Blog is designed to inform our readers of everything happening in South Orange County including market conditions, events, attractions, and much more. Additionally, we will provide you with our tips and opinions on many areas pe Site statistics:Click here
New Wallpaper Themes 2007-04-08 00:15:33 We have posted new wallpaper pictures for you to enjoy that showcase the beautiful South Orange County Coast. We hope that you like them and we will be happy to send you the full pictures upon request.
To change the background image, scroll over the thumbnails in the top menu bar and select the picture you wish to view.
All of the pictures were taken by Jared from different beaches and sites in South Orange County.
Investing in College Housing… Making an Educated Decision 2007-04-07 22:59:42 As a foreword to this article, being 22 years of age I do not have much, if any, experience in property investments. However, as a recent college graduate, I do have an opinion on how best to maximize your investment in college housing so that it is mutually beneficial for you and your sophomoric tenants.
College
enrollment has been on the rise at double digit percent increases each year, and there are no signs of this trend slowing (if only the economy would follow suit). This flood of new students to Colleges and Universities accross the Nation has put a strain on the institutions to provide on campus housing. This gives private investors a great opportunity to capitalize on leasing of off campus rooms to students. In the old days, an investor would buy a house in a college town and rent it as is. These days, some investors are getting more creative to maximize their profits.
First things first, students want to be close to their classes. The closer the better. So Read more:Investing
, Housing
, hellip
, Educated
A Lot to Swallow 2007-04-04 19:57:10 As a recent transplant to Southern California, I have been taking in all the events and activities that I can to fully experience what this area has to offer. There is so much culture in South Orange County, and this is put on display during the local events.
The Swallows Parade in San Juan Capistrano is an annual event dating back to the 1930’s. The “Fiesta de las Golondrinas” started as a school carnival and has grown into the largest non-motorized parade in the U.S. The parade includes equestrians, western dancers, live music, a vendor faire and much more. The celebration of the return of the swallows dramatizes the diverse and interesting culture of San Juan Capistrano, the oldest community in Orange County. With its Western heritage and Spanish influence, the unique charm of the town is sure to draw you in.
In addition to the Swallows Parade, there is a vendor faire and kids amusements available all day. I spent most of my time chowing down on beef sandwich
Happy to Be in South O.C. 2007-04-13 00:53:17 It did not take much to convince me to relocate to South
Orange County, California. I had enough of the cold and windy Philadelphia Winters, and even grew tired of the Northeast’s Indian Summers. I became increasingly aware each and every day I spent in Pennsylvania that I was not going to live there my whole life.
When my uncle packed up his things and moved to Dana Point a few years back, I never would have thought that eventually I would join him on the West coast. But the first time I stepped off the plane for a visit, I started making my plans to come back out to enjoy the warm California sunshine.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I am now a resident of South Orange County and I couldn’t be happier. There is so much to enjoy. The beaches wrapped around the jagged bluffs make the New Jersey coastline look like a sandbox. And the way the sun shines off the ocean reminds you of the Southern Florida coast, without all the humidity.
The Read more:Happy
Fire Prevention 2007-04-16 22:10:42 California Building Consultants, llc recommends the following preventative measures, along with recommendations to wisely clean up your home if you live with the smoke and soot range of the recent fires threatening the state. When you have a dry winter with below average rainfall, coupled with low humidity and high winds, it is imperative to exercise high caution both to prevent fire damage and to avoid further compromises to your home’s systems and components after the soot settles.
BEFORE…
To help curb the spread of fire to your home’s structure, make sure to keep foliage growth away from your home. Establish a green belt wherever possible; rake and remove all dry plant materials that may accumulate on your property. Also, make sure your fireplace chimney is equipped with a weather capped spark arrestor. You may also consider replacing that old wood shake or shingle roof with Class A roofing materials such as cement shake or ceramic tile. However, make sure that your roo
Things are Heating Up in South O.C. 2007-04-26 21:38:51 With the summer months fast approaching, the weather is heating up and the sun is shining more and more each day. There is a lot to do in South
O.C. during the summer including outdoor recreation, patio dining, and many festivals and events to enjoy. Here is a list of some activities and events you [...] Read more:Heating
O.C. vs. U.S. home price gap approaches $500,000 2007-04-26 09:32:01 My quasi-annual check-in with an odd barometer tells me that Orange County housing is still pretty expensive. By comparing Realtors' median selling price
data for Orange County and the nation, I found that in March our $706,650 median house was 3.26 times the nation's $217,000 typical price tag. At 3.26, the "Orange County premium" is slightly higher than the measure for all of 2006 but slightly lower than 2003 and 2004. Look at it this way, our mid-priced house costs $489,650 more than the nation as a whole. Since 1981, the "Orange County premium" has averaged 2.3, meaning a typical Orange County home has cost 2.3 times more than what buyers pay nationwide. Not that "revert to the mean" is always right, but it's worth noting that it would take a $201,000 drop in local prices to bring current pricing back in line with the historic premium. This Sunday, my Register column discusses this premium -- and how it got me into trouble five years ago. (Want a hint? CLICK HERE)
Tips for Energy Efficiency 2007-04-26 01:33:17 Check windows and doors. Heat lost through windows
and doors represents a significant chunk of most
heating bills. Some sources estimate that loss through
windows alone could account for up to 35 percent
of heating bills. If you are tired of watching your hard
earned money slip through the cracks, there are things
that you can do:
Check around windows and doors [...] Read more:Energy
, Efficiency
, Energy Efficiency
U.S. new home sales up 15.5% or 2.6%? Or off 10.3%? 2007-04-25 22:39:02 Did new homes sales nationwide REALLY rise in March from February? Did they JUMP or PLUMMET? The government press release quite clearly notes a severe plus/minus built-in error of this survey (Much like plus/minus in political opinion polls) ...Sales of new one-family houses in March 2007 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 858,000, according
to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.6 percent (±12.9%)* above the revised February rate of 836,000, but is 23.5 percent (±7.9%) below the March 2006 estimate of 1,121,000.
To read more, CLICK HERE
O.C. builder says 2008 ‘won’t be so great’ 2007-04-30 12:23:42 My pal, Jeff Collins of The Register, heard this outlook Friday at an annual conference hosted by the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Association ... The year 2008 "won't be so great," said Les Thomas, president of Shea Homes Southern California. "We hope things will be fine in '09."Hmmn. Read more RIGHT HERE Read more:lsquo
Tell us ‘How much extra is an O.C. home worth?’ 2007-04-28 02:00:00 Ponder what we'll call the Orange County premium. Or, "Why do we pay so much?" This premium since 1981 (using the Realtors' count of local vs. national median selling prices for single-family homes) shows an O.C. home has averaged costing 2.3 times more than the mythical, typical American home. Yet this premium is by no means stable. (Study up by GOING HERE.) Back in the last go-go days for housing, the premium peaked in 1989 with Orange County homes 2.7 times more expensive vs. national norms. At the depths of the ensuing real estate debacle, O.C. homes in the mid-1990s fell below twice as costly as nationwide peers. And, for most of the past five years, a midpriced O.C. home has cost triple the national median. (See your blogger's thoughts on this premium HERE!) Knowing these facts, and knowing where the housing market is today, how much extra should the Orange County home cost vs. U.S. homes? Tell us where the O.C. premium should be vs. its 26-year average of 2.3 times nation Read more:lsquo
OC builder says ‘Demand exists at the right price’ 2007-04-27 23:09:12 New-home shoppers should take notice. Builder Standard Pacific from Irvine says its first-quarter homebuilding gross margin percentage was (excluding an inventory impairment charge) 22.4% vs. 29.5% a year ago. Standard Pacific expects its second quarter margin to be approximately 17% and 18% for all of 2007. Why? Says the company: "The year-over-year decrease in our gross margin percentage, as adjusted, was driven by lower gross margins across most of our markets, most notably in California and Arizona. The decrease in these markets was driven by increased incentives and discounts resulting from weakening demand during last year and this year, creating a much more competitive market for new homes."
Also ...
• CEO Stephen Scarborough: "Overall, sales rates continue to be sluggish in many markets reflecting continued high inventory levels and buyers' concerns over home price
stability. With that being said, however, there were a few bright spots. We saw a continuation of the impr Read more:lsquo
April’s likely 19th down month in O.C. home sales 2007-04-27 16:05:52 Mid-April
stats from DataQuick show the local housing market's stagnation continuing. This looks to be the 19th straight month where sales couldn't meet last year's pace. (To see the results by ZIP code, CLICK HERE) For the 22 business days ended April 11:
Slice Price Vs. '06 Sales Vs. '06
House $712,000 +1.7% 1,665 -24.1%
Condo $460,000 -1.8% 775 -24.4%
New* $629,000 +2.8% 375 -33.6%
All $635,000 +0.8% 2,815 -25.6%
* Includes single-family homes, condos and recently converted apartments
COMPARE: See how other O.C. home-price indexes have fared by CLICKING HERE
POLL: What O.C. communities have the greatest housing potential? VOTE HERE Read more:likely
OC builders say this blogger is ‘questionable and inaccurate’ 2007-04-27 02:18:38 The Building Industry Association's Orange County Chapter today reported Construction Industry Research Board building-permit data that show ... "Orange County, as a whole saw a dramatic 317 percent increase in multi-family housing from February to March of 2007. From March 2006 until present, multi-family permits, as reported by CIRB, have increased by 271 percent." And ..."These numbers do not reflect a dire market as portrayed by the Orange County Register's Marketplace columnist, Jonathan Lansner," said Kristine Thalman, Chief Executive Officer of the Building Industry Association, Orange County Chapter. "Why would anyone seek out his column when it has produced questionable and inaccurate data reflecting the housing market?"
Thalman explained that Lansner regularly quotes sources with views far removed from other prominent housing market researchers and routinely ignores respected research institutions such as CIRB and the California Employment Development Department.
"These so Read more:lsquo
O.C. has 8 months-plus of homes for resale 2007-05-07 13:35:12 Spring may come and go without the usual annual home-buying rush, says the math of Steve Thomas at Re/Max Real Estate Services in Aliso Viejo. He calculates "market time" or a benchmark of how many months it theoretically takes to sell all the inventory in the local MLS for-sale listings at the current pace of pending deals being made.
By this Thomas logic, it would take 8.33 months for buyers to gobble up all homes listed for sale at the current pace of deals vs. 7.75 months two weeks earlier and vs. 4.43 months a year ago. And Thomas notes:
"Believe it or not, the Spring market is almost over. This month we can anticipate more of the same, buyers sitting on the sidelines digesting and slowly moving past the fading spotlight of the subprime debacle. However, with the growing inventory, dropping sales, increased foreclosures (nothing compared to the Inland Empire and Central Valley), we can anticipate additional media attention which could continue to dampen deman
Insider Q&A ponders Laguna Beach housing 2007-05-05 10:02:24 This week Insider
Q&A takes a turn from the usual big-picture view and digs down into a Town Talk that focuses on one slice of Orange County. This week well focus on scenic LagunaBeach
(pop. 25,131), where the most recent median selling price was $1.5 million, according to DataQuick. To see how the beach towns market was doing, we checked in with broker Gil Thibault at Prudential California, whos been selling homes in Laguna since 1976.
Us: In general, how would you describe the Laguna Beach market today?
Gil: Median selling price was up in January and February, down in March and would suspect it was flat in April. Volume is fair to good. Our company had a good month in March. We were happy with April. As for traffic? Moderate to good reports on buyer activity at open houses.
Us: What's the mood of buyers?
O.C. 1-family homes at record high price in mid-April 2007-05-04 10:09:11 Fresh stats from DataQuick give a confusing signal about the market for resales of single-family residences. Sales activity is off, again. For the 22 business days ended April
18, volume is down 22.9% vs. a year ago in this key market niche. That's a strong hint that single-family resales for all of April will fail to meet last year's count for the 19th straight month. However, the most recent median selling price
-- $720,000 -- would be a new record high for a full month. The current record, $705,000, was set in April 2006. Here's a look at the rest of the market, by key slices, for the 22 business days needed April 18:
Slice Price Vs. '06 Sales Vs. '06
House $720,000 +2.6% 1,813 -22.9%
Condo $457,000 -0.7% 814 -25.0%
New* $619,000 -0.1% 381 -26.4%
All $630,000 +0.0% 3,008 -23.9%
* Includes single-family homes, condos and recently converted apartments COMPARE: See how other O.C. home-price indexes have fared by CLICKI
Laguna Niguel Housing Market Update 2007-05-11 04:25:56 Laguna Niguel showed a 13.9% increase over last year with a median price of $740,000 and a -37.7% decrease in number of homes sold at 96 for the month of March. Read more:Laguna
, Housing
, Market
, Update
Dana Point Housing Market Update 2007-05-11 04:21:33 Dana Point showed a 4.3% increase over last year with a median price of $829,000 and a -23.4% decrease in number of homes sold at 36 for the month of March. Read more:Housing
, Market
, Update
Corona Del Mar Housing Sales Update 2007-05-11 02:05:32 Corona Del Mar showed a 17% increase over last year with a median price of $1,550,000 and a 21.7% increase in number of homes sold at 28 for the month of March. Read more:Housing
, Update
, Sales
Mortgage News 2007-05-11 01:59:08 Rates this week are flat with low volatility. Rates are inticipated to trend down over the next 4-6 weeks. Current rates range from 5.75% on a 15 year fixed, 5.75% on a 5/1 ARM and 6% on a 30 year fixed for loans uner $417,000. Jumbo loans are at 6% on a 15 year fixed, [...] Read more:Mortgage
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