Orange County Homes: What’s the Price of Housing Going to Do?
Jul. 21, 2014
If you’re a potential home buyer in southern California, you’re probably wondering what the price of Orange County homes is going to be in the coming months. While there’s no way to know for sure, some educated guesses can be made based on both history as well as job growth.
According to an editorial recently published in The Orange County Register, DataQuick results suggest that home prices are going to stay reasonably close to what they are now. Since 1998, that data shows flat median selling prices in southern California from June through December since 1998. In the first half of the year, the editorial notes, housing prices were up an average of 4.7 percent from 1998 to 2013. In fact, prices only fell in first halves of the year six times over the past 25 years — in the mid-1990s and then again in 2008, 2009, and 2011.
In the first five months of 2014, southern California witnessed a 3.8 percent increase in home prices. While it’s a sharp contrast to the 19 percent increase seen in the first half of 2013 — the steepest climb in housing prices in at least 25 years — it actually appears to be a relatively normal year. While sales have dropped over the eight consecutive months since May, the editorial states, one can’t discount a healthy job market and the impact it has on sales.
Southern California is currently experiencing the best job market of the century as it works on its third consecutive year of employment growth at two percent or higher. In past years, when the job growth in Southern California exceeded two percent, the median home selling price rose in the second half of the year eight times, indicating a similiar if not somewhat brighter present and near-future for the housing market.
If home buying is in your future, consider a new home in one of Brandywine’s southern California communities. For more information, contact us.
