Costa Mesa Real Estate Blog

The hottest section of the current real estate has been the bank owned sales (and short sales), and currently that active inventory, including both foreclosures and short sales, has dropped by 56% since reaching its peak last summer.

Most experts (including this Costa Mesa Realtor) have been expecting the distressed inventory to increase for the past couple of months. But, that has simply has not materialized yet. The distressed inventory (short sales and bank owned homes) dropped again in the past two weeks, bringing the total to 2,616 active in the Orange County market today. That figure now represents 29% of the overall active inventory versus 40% one year ago. It is 3,334 less than the peak of 5,950 on August 7, 2008.

So we have seen a big drop, and that is consistent in the Costa Mesa homes and Costa Mesa real estate market.

The problem right now is that there is tremendous demand for foreclosures, but simply not enough new foreclosures hitting the market. The expected market time currently is .54 months, about two weeks, compared to 1.42 months last year. T

The rumor mill has been giving us reasons for the shortage of foreclosures:

1. Lenders holding back inventory

2. Foreclosure laws changing

3. Many successful short sales prior to foreclosure (lenders more willing to sell than last year)

4. Demand for short sales is now more than twice what it was last year for short sales.  

Clearly the market has changed considerably over the past year for both foreclosures and short sales.

How do the rest of the numbers look? check out my previous posts for Costa Mesa Inventory, it has a great deal to do with what is causing the quick sales in the lower tier of the Costa Mesa real estate andhousing market.