REALTORs® and real estate professionals and their customers are looking for local market trends.

How is the real estate market?  We have something new to talk about when people at Orange County CA ask. 

Buyer demand for Orange County CA homes and properties during first 6 weeks of this year 2012 is at highest level as compared with that time each year since 2005.

Average market time to sell homes in that range of below $500k is short at 1.6 months and favors the sellers.

For homes priced above $500,000, buyer demand is also up 2%.  This is especially positive news considering inventory of Orange County property listed for sale is down 26% from last year.

This real estate news at Orange County CA is good for property owner/sellers.  Owners now on the sidelines need to get organized, get their properties cleaned and painted, and listed for sale with an experienced REALTOR® as soon as possible.

We hope for Orange County CA real estate trends that are positive and sustainable - will wait and see whether this news from the first six weeks of 2012 marks a real trend – whether it is supported by escrow closings, and other sales during the next 3 months – with possible window to the housing market recovery. 

East Costa Mesa is a most popular area at Orange County CA – with old-fashioned neighborhoods where people and kids walk and bike to visit each other, attend good schools, enjoy public parks, nice churches, shop at local markets - at gentrified commercial and restaurant areas on 17th Street.

See link to all East Costa Mesa SFR detached homes now listed – click here. 

East Costa Mesa is located next to and inland from Newport Beach CA and within two miles of its Newport Harbor and the ocean. 

East Costa Mesa home listed – $710,000 – 3 bedrooms and 2 baths – 1400 sf interior - MLS# U12000366 – IDX link

East Costa Mesa now has 35 detached single family homes now listed – with average listing price of $832,960.

 

East Costa Mesa home listed for sale – $1,050,000 - 4 bedrooms and 3 baths – MLS# U11004733 – IDX link

177 East Costa Mesa homes (SFR and condos, all shapes and sizes) have sold during this past one year – with average sold price of $603,419

CONTACT US – at 949-854-7747 – about listing and sale of East Costa Mesa CA homes and real estate.

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Source of some information is CRMLS and does not include that for new homes for sale or sold, those at trustee auctions after foreclosure, and otherwise includes those listed and sold by all agents and brokers.

Professional REALTOR® agent representation and help for property owner/sellers, private trust estate representatives, estate administrators and executors, probate and trust attorneys, estate planners, income tax professionals, public guardians, fiduciaries, investor group managers, bankers, and individuals, with listing and sale of properties at Orange County CA real estate

This is excellent real estate news – good for owners, buyers, sellers and investors.  Such excellent mortgage rates at Orange County CA real estate are a big reason that properties priced under $500k are selling quickly – with average market time of less then 2 months – favoring the sellers.

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If you want to buy a home at Orange County, CA, are financially qualified, have twenty percent down payment, good credit history, can qualify financially for a conforming loan of $417,000 with one point – your monthly payment on that loan would be $1,901,52.  This is for information only and not the providing of real estate or mortgage services.  You must consult with an experienced mortgage broker to determine whether you qualify and if that would be the best loan for you.

Professional REALTOR® agent representation and help for Orange County CA property owners, private trust estate representatives, estate administrators, executors and heirs, probate and trust attorneys, estate planners, income tax professionals, public guardians, fiduciaries, investor group managers, bankers, and individuals, with listing and sale of properties at Orange County, CA.

People ask us about possible lease option agreements to sell and buy properties at Orange County, CA.

California real estate contracts sometimes have OPTIONS granted to lessees and proposed buyers.

A rent-to-own or "LEASE OPTION contract" usually contains an OPTION TO PURCHASE clause. 

Sometimes developers get separate OPTIONS TO PURCHASE on bare land so they can buy and develop at some time in the future.  Adjacent property owners sometimes get a PURCHASE OPTION contract to secure future of neighboring property.

Question is whether any such OPTION TO PURCHASE might be something else – such as a "RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL" – where the buyer/optionee gets a right to buy at unknown price to be offered by another party at some time in the future.  

A purchase offer to sell property on certain terms can usually be revoked by the owner/offeror any time before it is accepted.  

 

An optionor/seller cannot revoke such OPTION TO PURCHASE if it was granted to optionee/buyer with "independent consideration".  

"Independent consideration" means that there must be actual payment or delivery of consideration of some kind (money, motor vehicle, jewelry, etc.) – which needs to be separate and distinct from the payment for the purchase of the property if the option was exercised.

The option agreement must contain essential material terms of the purchase and sale – identities of the buyer and seller, identity of the property, and the purchase price.

How such OPTION TO PURCHASE is exercised in California

"EXERCISE" of the option is usually by the buyer/optionee – and that would be optionee/buyer's acceptance of the offer to sell the property.

The option agreement can specify how the option is to be exercised – examples are "NOTICE OF EXERCISED OPTION" delivered by hand to the owner/optionor, or by fax, or by confirmed receipt email, or by messenger.  If the method is specified in the original option agreement, that must be followed exactly.  If no method is specified, the option can be exercised in any reasonable way that gives the seller/optionor notice that the buyer/optionee is accepting the offer and ready to perform.

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This is for information only and not the providing of legal or tax services.  Be very careful with options in California real estate purchase or lease contract.  If you are a buyer or seller of real estate and getting an agreement with an option, you should consult with an attorney in your state and area and make sure you get that right according to law. 

Professional REALTOR® agent representation and help for Orange County CA property owners, private trust estate representatives, estate administrators, executors and heirs, probate and trust attorneys, estate planners, income tax professionals, public guardians, fiduciaries, investor group managers, bankers, and individuals, with listing and sale of properties at Orange County, CA.

 10,898 Orange County CA properties are in the foreclosure pipeline as of today – February 15, 2012 – after filing of notice of default and prior to trustee auction sale at end of foreclosure.

A recent trend at Orange County Ca real estate is that time from default to foreclosure (average number of days) has been significantly reduced since last year.

California is a non-judicial foreclosure state.  Time to foreclose is the average number of days between the filing of the Notice of Default and the final sale at trustee auction after foreclosure during any specified month.

During January last year 2011, it took average of 338 days for lender/lienholders to complete foreclosures at Orange County – that time frame was reduced to 284 days last month January 2012.

At Irvine CA real estate the time frame from default to foreclosure was 416 days last year during January 2011 – that average time was reduced to 223 days this year during January 2012.

If you are interested to see a list of properties in default at any Orange County CA city and now scheduled for trustee sale auctions after foreclosure, contact us here and let us know your name, email address, and city of your interest for this information.  

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Source of information is ForeClosureRadar.com.   

Professional REALTOR® agent representation and help for Orange County CA property owners, private trust estate representatives, estate administrators, executors and heirs, probate and trust attorneys, estate planners, income tax professionals, conservators, public guardians, fiduciaries, investor group managers, bankers, and individuals, with listing and sale of properties at Orange County, CA.

California New Smoke Free Housing Law for 2012

The  California Smokefree Housing Law (SB 332) went into effect on January 1, 2012 – added Section 1947.5 to the California Civil Code- and gives multifamily property owners and managers the power to prohibit smoking in rental units.

This authorizes a landlord of a residential dwelling to prohibit the smoking of tobacco products on the property, in a dwelling unit, in another interior or exterior area, or on the premises on which the dwelling unit is located.

This new law makes requirements on notices and leases that a landlord who prohibits smoking pursuant to this authority is subject to federal, state, and local requirements governing changes to the terms of a lease or rental agreement for tenants.

California owner/landlords had prior legal authority to prohibit smoking – this new law gives them platform for new programs to enforce smoking bans in multifamily housing communities.  

See Public Health Law and Policy (PHLP) website - with information for property owners and managers who are considering adoption of smoke free policies.

City of Pasadena is even more strict with its smoke free housing law for multi-family units 2012.

The City of Pasadena is leading the California trend and has banned smoking in all multi-family units including condominiums and townhouses, and prohibits smoking in all common areas and inside units.  See the Pasadena city ordinance at "Reduction of Drifting Tobacco Smoke in Multi-Unit Housing."   

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Source of some information is Davis-Stirling.com newsletter, is for information only and is not the providing of legal services. 

Irvine is the economy powerhouse at Orange County CA - has more jobs for employees than any other city of it size (with more than 200,000 people) in Southern California – and sells more real estate than other areas at Orange County. 

Irvine has 572 homes now listed for resale with average listing price of $953,253.

• 121 of those listed are short sales, and 31 of those listed are REOs.  So 26.5 percent of current Irvine for sale listings are distressed properties.

Realtors and brokers resold 2,201 Irvine homes last year during 2011 – with average sold price of $638,742.

• 443 of those sold homes last year were short sales (20 percent of market)
• 218 of those sold homes were REO lender owned after foreclosures (10 percent of market).

132 Irvine homes were resold last month during January 2012 – with average sold price of $622,470.

Since there are 572 Irvine homes now listed for resale and 132 sold during January, it would theoretically take 2.3 months to sell all homes now listed at this rate.  Balanced would be about 4.5 month, so this Irvine market favors the sellers.

Northwood at Irvine homes now listed – click here for active link.  

Northpark at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

Quail Hill at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

Portola Springs at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

 Shady Canyon at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

Westpark at Irvine homes now listed – click here

Woodbridge at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

Turtle Rock at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

University Park at Irvine homes now listed – click here

Woodbury at Irvine homes now listed – click here.

Irvine airport area homes now listed – click here.

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Source of some information is CRMLS, does not include FSBOs, trustee auctions sales or new homes, and does include those sold by all brokers and agents.

Issues are sometimes overlooked and trip up short sale sellers at Orange County CA real estate.

These and lender requirements for properties should be reviewed carefully at the start of the process, so short sellers don’t get surprised with negative lender response and rejections.

Who Owns the Loan - It’s important to determine who owns the notes and deeds of trust (as used in California).  If you are dealing with a third party negotiator who works for a lender, you need to confirm name and address of the lender, investor, and separate negotiator.  It’s also important to find out what authority to negotiate has been granted to the third party negotiator.

Lender’s short sale process  - Sellers and their agents must find out at the earliest possible time about the specific lender, its negotiator, and its process for considering and approving a short sale.

Buyers Should Make Clean Offers - Lenders and their negotiators like to see clean and easy offers in short sales.  Sellers should encourage buyers to clear as many of their contingencies as possible in their offers, so those offers are easy to understand and approve by lender/lienholders.

Incidental fees - Lenders for sellers in short sales don’t usually agree to pay much, if any, of the outstanding incidental costs at closing – such as title fees, survey fees, unpaid utility bills, and document delivery fees.

About one in three people in California now live in communities where there are homeowner associations, and new California laws impact those people.

CA Senate Bill 209 – new CA law for 2012 - governing electric vehicle charging stations - restricts homeowners associations from prohibiting or restricting the installation of an electric vehicle charging station, although associations still have jurisdiction over the approval process for such stations.  Owners will be responsible for the maintenance costs associated with charging stations and for any commonly metered electricity.  Owners will also be required to obtain an umbrella liability insurance policy that names the association as an additional insured.

Senate Bill 563 – new CA law for 2012 - new requirements regarding the actions of homeowner association boards between meetings.

• Homeowner associations must notify members at least two days prior to a meeting of the board’s executive session.
• Allows for meeting notifications to be sent electronically to homeowners and permits board meetings to be conducted by teleconference as long as they are conducted in a manner that protects the rights of members.
• Notices of teleconference meetings must identify a physical location so  members can attend and requires that at least one member of the board be present at the location.
• Board of homeowner associations are prohibited from conducting a meeting via a series of electronic transmissions, such as email, except to conduct an emergency meeting.

These news laws are part of the California Civil Code starting at section 1350 re condominium, cooperative and planned unit development communities.  

There are positive local economic trends appearing at Orange County CA in several sectors. 

Job numbers for Orange County CA during December 2011 had big year-over-year gain in number employed – largest increase in number of OC working people since January 2001 (11 years ago).

Lots of Orange County workers are still out of work.  However, December 2011 had lowest jobless count and lowest local unemployment rate since early 2009.

Orange County started 2012 with largest labor force in three years.

Food service business was a big job creator for 2011, and November 2011 set a record high of 143,200 Orange County restaurant workers.

Store owners added jobs in 2011, and November retail worker count was the highest for local merchants in three years.

Retail businesses added jobs during last three months of 2011 to meet holiday shopping, which was biggest year-end staffing up numbers since 2007.

New cars are selling again at Orange County – with year-to-date sales through October 2011 up 16 percent.

2.1 million square feet of local office space were leased out during 2011, which was biggest office leasing at Orange County since 2005.

Orange County builders took out permits for 4,818 homes, condo units and apartments during 2011, and that was up 56 percent vs. 2010.

I don't know whether these positive economy trends will hold strong for 2012, or whether we will have sustained economy growth at Orange County during this time.  We hope for the best for our Orange County economy, that private industry jobs will increase and buyer demand for real estate will be strong.  

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Source of some information is Jon Lansner at Orange County Register, January 28, 2012. 

Contact us about listing and sale of ORANGE COUNTY CA homes and real estate. ~ Professional REALTOR® agent representation and help for property owners, private trust estate representatives, estate administrators, executors and heirs, probate and trust attorneys, estate planners, income tax professionals, public guardians, fiduciaries, investor group managers, bankers, and individuals, with listing and sale of properties at Orange County, CA.