Archive for the ‘Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo’ Category
August 13, 2008
You might have noticed that the Redfin search page is sporting a new look this week.
Back in December, the CEO of Redfin Glenn Kelman had a chat with Today Show’s Meredith Viera and talked about how Redfin’s approach to the science of real estate. (Click here to see video)
Photo Courtesy of MSN.com
The spirit of the “science of real estate” really drove the folks at the headquarters (we bloggers are independent contractors able to write about whatever, whenever really) to continue using a data driven, scientific approach for Redfin users as the latest changes were launched.
Kelman explains the new changes the changes here. Definitely check it out to maximize your researching effectiveness.
What I love:
-Numbers, Charts & Pictures, Oh My! There’s enough data here to answer almost any question. The charts and layout really help simplify the information I’m looking at. Not to mention all the information I ever asked when searching for homes about the local area is at my finger tips.
-The Big Picture Often when doing research on single homes it’s hard to get a read on the big picture. We get so wrapped up in looking at one house we are interested we forget to check out the rest of the town/neighborhood/city. Now we can get the big picture to compare to our little/not-so-little house we’re scoping out.
-Breaking It Down Finally the numbers are broken down to separate condos from single family homes! This makes the data we get much better and more accurate!
-The Layout The handy dandy toolbar at the top of the page (see picture below) is super user friendly. In fact, I think a lot of the page is incredibly user friendly and I don’t have to refresh my page or hit the “back” button to look at another data set.
What I Don’t So Much Love
-Address Search For as long as I’ve searched Redfin using an address I only get a hit about half of the time. I often end up searching for a specific address by looking it up on a Google map and then manually searching the Redfin map.
-Street Search I can’t just type in a street name and pull up the listings. Sometimes I’ll drive by a house and forget to write down the address and get home and have to once again manually drag through the maps rather than being able to type in “Mendocino Ct. Laguna Hills” and get the listings on that road.
Overall, the the new system is great and offers up a ton of help to the data-driven junkie like myself. Anyone else have thoughts on the new system?
August 11, 2008
Nestled right in the corner of Trabuco and Los Alisos Rd is the Barcelona neighborhood. It’s got great proximity to the lake, is surrounded by parks and is a quiet little neighborhood when all things are considered. The homes are older and smaller. They are single family homes, though many are the size of local condos. Many have been remodeled, but many also have a lot of cosmetic work that needs to be done and there are a good handful of homes that look a little overgrown.
As far as faring well in the market, the Barcelona neighborhood is very typical of the OC trends - the homes have steadily lost value over the last two years. What was once a cozy (read: small), quiet home that could readily sold for $600k+ now looks to sell for about $450K. My guess is that back in the day these were a flippers dream and the jig’s up now. I think these homes still have a little dropping to do before they “bottom out” in value. We’ll have to keep our eyes on it!
On The Market
27112 Via Noveno
2 beds / 2 baths / 936 Sq Ft.
Listed At: $465,000
DOM: 33 Days
22722 Via Octavo
4 beds / 2 baths /1,463 Sq Ft
Listed At: $549,900
DOM: 11 Days
22701 Via Tercero
3 beds / 1.75 baths / 1,178 Sq Ft
Listed At: $399,900
DOM: 43 Days
2006 Sales
27032 Via Noveno
3 beds / 2 baths / 1,178 Sq Ft
Sold For: $610,000
26841 Via Santa Lucia
3 beds / 2 baths / 1,178 Sq Ft
Sold For: $615,000
22731 Via Tercero
3 beds / 1.5 baths / 1,614 Sq Ft
Sold For: $690,000
2007 Sales
22561 Via Tercero
4 beds / 2 baths / 1,463 Sq Ft
Sold For: $700,000
Recently Sold
26942 Via Quinto
4 beds / 2 baths /1,463 Sq Ft
Sold For: $445,500 (5.1.08)
22836 Via Octavo
3 beds / 1.5 baths / 1,099 Sq Ft
Sold For: $425,000 (4.2.08)
22635 Via Tercero
2 beds / 1 bath / 935 Sq Ft
Sold For: $425,000 (6.30.08)
August 8, 2008
Cozy 1 bedroom, unlimited bath home. Offers an Emersonesque-like commune with neighbor. This unique beauty offers a sprawling yard and open floor plan to it’s lucky buyer. Come check it out!
I have always loved the descriptions of homes in advertisements, on the MLS or anywhere else you can find them. In fact, years ago, part of my job was writing those blurbs for newspaper ads at a real estate office. And according to the Chicago Sun Times, the words used in those ads actually have a lot to say about the home.
Their study included 9 large metro-areas (including the OC), and had several interesting findings, including:
“For the most part, “nice” is used to describe homes under $250,000.
Frequently used quirky words to grab attention include “wow,” “cool,” “savvy” and “fussiest.”
Here are the top 20 subjective words used to describe homes overall: perfect, gorgeous, wonderful, lovely, quiet, updated, entertaining, easy, oversized, old, fabulous, beautifully, stunning, charming, spacious, potential, plenty, luxury, style and quality.
The areas with the highest number of listings mentioning price reductions are Washington D.C. (8 percent), Orange County (5.9 percent), San Jose (5.6 percent) and St. Louis (4 percent). Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Miami were all at 2 percent.”
Other terms & translations:
-Commune with nature = enjoy the raccoons in your attic and the family of skunks under your front stoop
-Recent exterior work = the bullet holes from the last drive-by were recently patched
-Friendly neighbors = (just walk away if used in conjunction with exterior work) duck if they slow down while driving by your house
-Major price reduction = this house has been on the market forever and the selling agent is on their last leg - buy now please!
-Sprawling floor plan = the owners who were trying to flip this gutted the place and ripped out all walls only to run out of cash to finish the flip
-Potential = it’s cheap now but will probably give you a huge headache and cost way more to fix it than you think!
-Location, Location, Location! = your “stunning view” overlooks the 405 and your side wall sporting the master window backs up to the back of the Ralph’s semi-docking station to unload shipments at 5am every morning
-Ocean View = If you stand on the left side of the master bath sink at a 47-degree angle on a perfectly sunny day you can catch a shimmer of Ol’ blue sparkling back at you (this happens approximately 3 days a year)
-Exterior Freshly Repainted = tags and grafitti recently painted over
-Cute = it’s small enough that you can cook your eggs on the oven and clean your bathroom on the other side of the house without ever moving your feet
Obviously this is all done in jest - but do remember, these are advertisements and just like all ads, there is bound to be some exagerration or fallicious argumentation behind it. I’d also love to hear other descriptions and their “translations” to add to the list!
August 7, 2008
As the summer wears on and we near the end of the peak spring/summer sellings season I continue to notice a flurry of Open House signs littering the streets each weekend just about everywhere I go. Mission Viejo has a pretty loaded schedule with a lot of open houses scheduled. If you’re looking for a single family residence, here are a few to check out.
22852 Boltana
4 beds / 3 baths / 2,143 Sq Ft
Listed For: $624,900
Open Saturday 1-4pm
22511 Bluejay
4 beds / 3 baths / 3,451 Sq Ft
Listed For: $959,000
Open Sunday 2-5 pm
25476 Pacific Hills
5 beds / 3 baths / 3,100 Sq Ft
Listed For: $1,125,000
Open Sunday 1-5
27390 Morro
4 beds / 3 baths / 2,815 Sq Ft
Listed For: $899,000
Open Sunday 1-5
11 Regalo Dr
5 beds / 4 baths / 3,139 Sq Ft
Listed For: $895,000
Open Sunday 1-5
9 Cantada
3 beds / 3 baths / 1,830 Sq Ft
Listed For: $665,000
Open Saturday 2-5
August 6, 2008
The airline industry. An upfront apology for the unintentional hiatus in my posting folks, but I uncovered the not-so-hidden problems with our airline industry this week and spent about 50 hours delayed in 6 days.
Why do I think the airline industry is in far worse shape than the real estate market? Because the airlines are getting hit in every direction, whereas the real estate market has far more localized pockets of failures matched to areas of improvement.
Case in point, I was visiting with a Chicago Realtor about the state of the market from the peak a few years back. She explained that the market in the Northwest suburbs has such a disparity that you have to break down the price declines by neighborhoods, not just cities. For instance one neighborhood was sitting just fine and had faced an approximate 3% loss in value at most from the peak in 2005/2006. Meanwhile a few miles down the road home values had gone from the upper $400’s to selling for a meager $315k.
So what does that mean for us Californians? I think we get hit with far more doom and gloom because while the declines are somewhat localized on a national scale(some cities have gotten hit way harder) - the overall market decline covers most of the state.
PMI’s assessment of which markets are at stake for continued loss or gain shows just how localized the “crash” is.
Photo Courtesy of PMI
As you can see, a very large section of the country has a slim to none chance (according to their prediction) of losing home values. Markets appear to be strengthening just about everywhere else other than here and in Florida.
The LA Times blog reports:
Mortgage insurer PMI Group’s latest report on the risk of falling home prices concludes there are “two distinctly different paths” for housing in America right now: most of the nation’s housing markets are showing signs of improvement, but bubble-inflated markets in California and Florida are showing signs of further deterioration amid rising foreclosures.
But what does that mean for us locally?
At first glance it gives little hope to most of us since most Laguna Hills and Mission Viejo residence have lost value on their homes. It is smart to remember, however, that most of the huge losses are very localized. Additionally some neighborhoods just haven’t been hit quite as hard (see Neighborhood Spotlight: Castille). So when local analysts or the national news get all hyped up about just how horrible the real estate market is, remember that it’s not this bad everywhere - us Californians are just seeing the worst of it.
August 1, 2008
Located right on the corner of Alicia and Moulton is probably the hardest hit neighborhood in all of Laguna Hills - Via Lomas. Via Lomas was (and still is) the cheapest neighborhood to move into so when the subprime mortgage games began it was an easy target for dicey loans for first time homebuyers in particular. The street is LINED with foreclosures and for that, the prices have plumetted. Here’s a sample of what sold for what when. It gives a dismal picture of just how bad this mortgage mess got at it’s worst.
25881 Via Lomas Apt 239
2 beds / 1 bath / 894 Sq Ft
Sold For: $370,000 (11.15.05)
25856 Via Lomas Apt 35
2 beds / 2 baths / 897 Sq Ft
Sold For: $395,000 (4.28.06)
25816 Via Lomas Apt 61
2 beds / 2 baths / 901 Sq Ft
Sold For: $390,000 (8.01.06)
25761 Via Lomas Apt 150
2 bed / 1 bath / 893 Sq Ft
Sold For: $138,500 (7.9.08)
25815 Via Lomas Apt 201
2 bed / 1 bath / 901 Sq Ft
Sold For: $194,500 (3.13.08)
On The Market Now:
25792 Via Lomas #78
3 beds / 2 baths / 1357 Sq Ft
Listed For: $200,000
25762 Via Lomas #99
3 beds / 1 bath / 1,170 Sq Ft
Listed For: $209,900
25775 Via Lomas #164
2 beds / 2 baths / 897 Sq Ft
Listed For: $170,000
July 30, 2008
With all this talk of bottoms, plateaus, and leveling out of the local real estate market I thought I would take a look at the numbers and see what story they tell us about the state of the Laguna Hills real estate market.
Days On Market
It turns out that the inventory in Laguna Hills is on the up and up. It’s gone from a low around 120 in January to about 134 now. While it’s an increase, we’re still only talking about 14 additional houses. I didn’t even post the chart because it looks scarier than it really is! The other good bit of news is that the average days on market has leveled and stayed level for about three months. The disheartening part about it is that the average days on market is that it’s sitting just over four months. That’s an awfully long time to sell your home. With the number of foreclosures out there, the competition to sell is steep and sellers will have to take drastic measures in order to remain competitive.
Median Price
Speaking of some of those drastic measures, one look at the median prices shows just what measures need to be taken - price it right. The median price of the home on the market in Laguna Hills sits right around $777k. This is by far the most surprising number of them all. At the lowest the number dipped to about $755k. To see an incline is shocking.
Looking at these numbers many might jump to say that we’ve hit the bottom, but given all things I’m reluctant to say so. The median price does seem to be increasing but with a market as small as Laguna Hills, the simple sale of some larger homes (say Nellie Gail) can really skew the data. In fact, a quick glance shows that in the last three months there were over 10 of the $950K Nellie Gail homes sold - many in June and early July.
I think these numbers only affirm what I’ve been discussing a lot lately we’ve hit a plateau of sorts, not the bottom. There’s a little stablization in the market and we’re not facing the full on free fall that we experienced for the last twelve months. But there’s still a lot of sorting out to be done. There’s a long way to go so we’ll have to see where the road takes us.
July 29, 2008
Not surprising analysts and mavens alike, the California foreclosure problem escalates. Both Dataquick and Foreclosureradar.com recently released numbers that paint a dismal picture on the state of foreclosures in the Golden State.
Dataquick’s stats and analysis indicate that we might be hitting a plateau as the numbers are starting to stablize a bit. On first read I was reluctant to agree, but they also noted, “Most of the loans that went into default last quarter were originated between September 2005 and November 2006.” Also noted was the fact that multi-loan mortgages peaked near the end of 2006. This means we’re starting to near the end of the timeline for the dicier loans and seeing the fall out as prices increase.
I am anxious to see what happens, however, when the more appropriate, but still risky loans with 5 year-arms come up to expire in 2010 and 2011 and the home values still have not recovered. We might see Round II then.
Worthy of Noting
- Orange County Sits Mid-Level: According to Foreclosureradar.com Orange County does not lead the pack in the state for foreclosures. Instead, the county actually saw a 2% decrease in foreclosures from May of ‘08. But don’t get too excited yet, when compared to June of ‘07 foreclosures are up 247% .
- Less People Are Recovering: Dataquick reports a year ago, just over half the people facing foreclosure were able to stay in their home, the numbers are getting less hopeful. “Of the homeowners in default, an estimated 22 percent emerge from the foreclosure process by bringing their payments current, refinancing, or selling the home and paying off what they owe.”
- It’s Hitting Home: The Foreclosure Factor is undoubtedly taking a toll on the markets. “Foreclosure resales have emerged as a significant market factor, accounting for 40.0 percent of all California resale activity last quarter. A year ago it was 5.4 percent.”
July 26, 2008
Aliso Place is inconspicuously conspicuous. It’s readily accessible, but a person can drive by it a thousand times and not quite notice it’s there. Aliso Place is tucked off of Paseo de Valencia right near La Paz in Laguna Hills. It’s close to schools (walking distance to the elementary and high schools), offers some great views of the Saddleback Mountains and has great access to parks as well. Most of the models are pretty roomy offering 2,500+ Sq Ft of living space per home. What’s been happening in the real estate market there?
On the Market
25992 Sarita Dr
3 beds / 3 baths / 2,651 Sq Ft
Listed For: $619,000
DOM: 40
25511 La Mirada
4 beds / 3 baths / 3,008 Sq FT
Listed For: $708,000
DOM: 39 Days
24822 Largo Dr
4 beds / 3 baths / 2,870 Sq Ft
Listed For: $745,000
DOM: 102
Past Sales
24852 Largo Dr $729,000 (3.01.07)
25581 La Mirada St $929,000 (3.13.07)
25505 La Mirada St $905,000 (4.17.07)
25531 El Capitan $815,000 (8.13.07)
25022 Marin Ct $710,000 (8.30.07)
25391 Linda Vista Dr $650,000 (5.30.08)
July 24, 2008
Jon Lansner certainly thinks so. His recent blog gives several indicators:
- OC home prices rose in June
- Increased sales rate
- Supply down
- And more
I’m not so optimistic. I don’t want to be the naysayer, but the number of low interest rates/arms set to expire from 2009-2011 and the home values certainly not rebounding in time to refinance makes me nervous that this is just the bottom of round I. I don’t think Round II will be quite as bad, but it certainly won’t help. That said, I think we still have some time before crying “bottom”.
CNNMoney.com reports that they think that there are several factors indicating the market has not yet hit rock bottom.
The factors that are weighing on the housing market remain in place - weak consumer confidence, a weak labor market and rising mortgage rates - so there are some strong fundamental headwinds still weighing on the market,” said Robert Dye, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
“We are hoping for a bottom, but we are not expecting any significant rebound from that bottom until the labor market and consumer confidence starts to improve,” he added.
I have to agree there are too many unknowns and weaknesses in the market. Until we see some more strength from the consumer perspective, as well as a well-laid plan to account for the millions of homes that are doomed for foreclosure when the arms and interest rates rise in the next few years, things aren’t going to get much better.
