Orange County

[TrabucoDom]

In todays OC Register (March 18, 2012)...OC resale condos down 13.8%, median price $250,000, year-over-year...

Condo prices have fallen off a cliff...that should be front page news.....

They did have a small piece on their website on Feb 25, 2012....:

http://lansner.ocregister.com/2012/02/25/o-c-condo-price-at-10-year-low/159035/

O.C. condo price at 10-year low

· posted by Jon Lansner

Call it the lost decade: Condos are back to 2002 pricing.

That’s a major highlight of DataQuick’s new Orange County homebuying report. For the 22 business days ending Feb. 6, -Orange County’s real estate market saw …

• Median selling price for condos of $250,000 — that is off 12.3% vs. a year ago.
• That’s lower than the cyclical full-month low of $252,000 in March 2009. And lowest since September 2002.
• The discounting seems to help sales as condo purchases were up 1.1% vs. a year ago in this month recent period.
• Median selling price for all residences of $390,000 — that is off 6.0% vs. a year ago.
• Total Orange County sales of 2,067 residences closed in the latest period — that is off down 2.0% vs. a year ago.
• Note: 7 of 83 Orange County ZIPs had both rising sales and prices in the period. Is your ZIP one of those neighborhoods? To see, CLICK HERE!

[Groundhog]

Nice post TD,

THE TIDE ALWAYS TURNS................

High HOA fees, and complexes which have high rental occupancy rates do not make potential occupant buyers happy.  Also, my understanding is that loans are more difficult to get for complexes where the owner occupancy level is low.

Groundhog opinion

OGR

[WhatARipOff]

"OC condos down 13.8% year-over-​year...thi​s should be front page news"

Well said TrabucoD!

ANOTHER topic that should be front-page news (yet ISN'T) is how condo associations are increasingly forced to RAISE HOA FEES in order to make-up for the SCORES of delincuent condo 'owners' who have fallen behind in paying them.

Although I'm not in the market for a condo, I DO look at some listings and I've noticed that nowadays it's become extremely HARD to find an association that charges LESS than $300 per month in fees, which is pretty OUTRAGEOUS! If you were to buy a SF dwelling, that additional amount paid ($300) allows you to buy MUCH MORE of a house. I've even seen some HOA fees as high as $500 or even $600 in some areas. How utterly ridiculous.