Orange County Housing Market Starting to Weaken
The LA Times published the monthly housing figures this morning and the volume of home sales in Southern California is now at a 9 year low.
Specific to my situation, Orange County's median home price increased this month by 6.3% to $639,000 from the same period last year. However, the Times doesn't publish how this price compares to last month. I know that last month's figure was $646,000, so prices appear to have dipped a little bit.
Because we don't own a house yet, I'm obviously biased (and hopeful) toward the fact that I think prices will fall. I'm a firm believer that the entire housing market is interest rate driven and that if interest rates rise too high, we may be in for a significant downturn in housing prices.
But I'm not holding my breath. I anticipate that my fiance and I would seriously be in the housing market after our wedding next June, so we have some time to see how things play out. My current attitude (this seems to change weekly) is that as long as we own our house for 10 years, it won't matter if we buy at an inflated price. However, if we are buying for less than 5 years, or for investment purposes, we should probably be careful.
Is anyone out there seriously considering buying a house in the next year? If so, how do you react to this "potential" drop in prices?
posted by Please Read @ 6:07 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Dan, I am in the market for a house. Ofcourse being in the SF/Bay area is similar to OC [Housing prices are very high]. Ive seen that market is slowing as more houses are on the market and for longer and most have slashed prices by up to $40000. I think there may be a 10% further reduction in prices and then it will stabilize. All this does not really matter if you plan to stay at the home for a long time (more than 10? years) and you can afford it.
Thanks for your input Mr. P. Keep us posted on how things look in the housing arena for you. As you mentioned, our housing markets are very similar.
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