The state of the real estate market in Orange County is very optimistic at this time. We hear conversations about the high inventory of Un-Sold homes, and we also hear that not too many buyers are buying at this time. Below you will find a graph that compares the state of the market as of July 9th, 2019 vs. what it was in the 30 days prior to April 16, 2019, just 90 days ago. Contrary to all that you hear, here is my analysis of it:

Let’s look at the far left columns for the inventory of homes under $1,000,000. As you can see the number of homes available for sale is at 4,274. This number is about 11.1% greater than what it was back in April. On the same note, the number of homes sold in the same price range is at 2,204, which is an increase of 26% from April. Hence, the “Months Of Inventory” for homes in this price range is about 11.8% lower than what it was in April. The number of sales has increased at a faster rate than the number of homes available for sale.

The same pattern is seen for homes in the price ranges of “$1.0M to $1.5M”, “$1.5M to $2.0M” and “$2.0M and Up”.

In other words, every month we see approximately 2,500 new listings come on the market and approximately 2,500 homes sell and close escrow. There are a group of approximately 4,600 to 4,900 homes that go unsold because they are either:

Not in good condition and not enough is done to prepare them to be in top physical condition to make them aesthetically attractive.
Priced above where they should be listed because of the unrealistic expectations of the Sellers and/or lack of expertise by the so-called real estate agents.
There is no clear direction in how a property should be marketed on the internet and social media channels to effectively be exposed to the right demographics.

If the number of homes sold in each of these price ranges is increasing (short and seasonal), then one must conclude that well conditioned, well priced, and well-marketed properties sell, and properties that lack one or more of these elements remain UNSOLD. This is where we get this negative mindset that the market is BAD or NOTHING is selling.

One Final Note - There are homes SOLD every day and if you want to be one of them make sure that they are in Model Home condition, competitively priced, and you hire the right agent who knows how to market, with a specific plan of action.