News

Some 500 house shoppers showed up to see 53 new homes that hit the Garden Grove on Jan. 14.

Brandywine Homes’ Century Village in the city’s central hub offers four floor plans ranging from 1,705 square feet to 2,247 square feet with three or four bedrooms; up to 3.5 bathrooms; and garages holdings two or three cars. All units have front porches and balconies. Projected pricing is the low-$400,000 range.

Brandywine expects to complete construction nine townhomes by April; eight more should be complete by May.

Brandywine may do well. Garden Grove homes have been selling 40 percent faster than the rest of the county by one analyst’s math.

Every two weeks, Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com publishes a study of the supply of local homes for sale. As of January 5, Thomas found in Garden Grove 261 residences listed in brokers’ MLS system — with 119 new deals opening in the past 30 days.

By Thomas’s math, Garden Grove has a “market time” (months it would take to sell all inventory at current pace of new escrows) of 2.19 months vs. 2.03 months found two weeks earlier vs. 4.65 months seen a year earlier.

Countywide, latest market time was 3.65 months vs. 5.10 months a year ago. So, homes in Garden Grove sell — in theory — in 40 percent less time than the countywide pace.

Of the homes listed for sale in this community, 136 were either foreclosures being resold or short sales, where sellers owe more than the home’s value. So distressed properties were 52.1 percent of the city’s supply of homes for sale vs. 38.7 percent countywide.

Compare these trends to countywide distressed-listing patterns: Cities with highest level of distressed properties among their listings? Portola Hills was tops — 87.5 percent — followed by Rancho Santa Margarita at 66.4 percent of listings and Ladera Ranch at 66.1 percent of listings. Fewest? Corona Del Mar was tops — 4.4 percent — followed by Seal Beach at 4.7 percent of listings and Laguna Woods at 8.1 percent of listings