So I buckled myself up, and sat in front of the computer for a few hours to extrapolate some of the data from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).  For a numbers geek like me, it’s pretty interesting stuff. And if you’re not a numbers geek…you might be surprised to find, it’s not entirely boring.  Work with me here…

The Good

There is no doubt that certain communities have been more resilient over the course of this housing crisis than others.  In my recent post discussing the  product profile for new residential construction in Orange County, I discussed the uniqueness of the Irvine market.  It has some of the lowest distress numbers in South County and a buyer demand that is consistently selling out the newest construction projects.  Year-to-date they have had less than 7% of all closings listed as bank owned (foreclosed) property and 22% short sales.  With less than a combined total of 29% for properties closed that were ‘distress’ so far this year, Irvine is one of the strongest cities in the county.

The strength of the Irvine buyer demand may be attributed to the nationally renowned schools, the proximity to Chapman University and University of Irvine, and the attractive commute to many Orange County employers.

My suspicion is also that the buyer profile may have been stronger.  I’d need to do further research, but given the large amount of new construction sold during the boom years, I’m a little surprised to still see a relatively low default rate, or distress market, as compared to other areas in South County that grew up in the boom.

The Bad…Or At Least ‘Not So Good’

Some of the other cities have seen significantly higher numbers of distress sales – bank owned properties and short sales closed.

Lake Forest has seen some fairly dismal numbers at nearly 60% of their closings either bank owned or short sales, with a slight improvement this year so far at 55.9%.  It’s also interesting to note that while some cities (Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita) seem to be seeing a slight improvement in the percentage of equity sales (owners can sell for a price that covers mortgages and costs of sale) this year, Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo have seen decreases. Why?

We’ve seen that some of the higher price points have been stronger for longer.  In other words, it’s only been more recently that we’ve seen short sales or bank foreclosures to any great extent in the higher price points.  These neighborhoods may now be feeling that pinch.

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The Really Ugly

It’s interesting to examine the nature of the neighborhoods that have the highest number of distress inventories.  Upon examining a couple of the neighborhoods, it’s clear to me there are some very real reasons for the challenges some of these neighborhoods are facing.

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It’s important to know the following about the this chart – Ladera Ranch numbers include their gated community of Covenant Hills, and San Clemente’s overall numbers include their newest addition of Talega in their calculations.  For discussion, I’ve pulled out the specifics for both Covenant Hills and Talega.

It’s hard to ignore, out of the cities I profiled, the only one that didn’t have a lower percentage of bank owned homes (foreclosures) was Lake Forest, and certainly Lake Forest has really struggled with high numbers of distress throughout this market as well.

Growing Up In The Boom

I’m particularly interested in the makeup of Ladera Ranch, Covenant Hills, and Talega in this crisis, however.  These are neighborhoods that experienced unprecedented demand, and in the early years, unprecedented appreciation.  The product was new, architecture was unique, planning was exceptional, and it was highly appealing to the buyer profile of the day.  But the one commonality these neighborhoods also face is the fact that they literally grew up in the boom.

And in the case of Covenant Hills (which I intend to explore further in a future post) you have a community, a luxury one at that, that was just in the beginning stages of it’s launch.  And while the construction of the planned community, high-end tract homes, has nearly completed at this point, the high number of available empty lots slated for luxury custom builds, remains vast.

And when you have entire communities that are built in a boom, the overall impact of that bust can be devastating.    For a small community like Covenant Hills – the high end of Ladera Ranch – to see nearly 64% of it’s year-to-date sales as distress, the impact cannot be overstated. With Talega suffering over 60% of it’s closed inventory year-to-date as distress sales, there can be no question that this has dramatic impact on value.

Is There a ‘Good Deal’ for a Buyer Here?

Without a doubt, there are opportunities to get a ‘good deal’ in these neighborhoods.  In some of the hardest hit neighborhoods, prices have fallen and distress inventory is high.  So if a ‘deal’ is the goal, they are certainly here.

But I’m curious about your perspective as a buyer – and I’m interested in your feedback.  If you find a property that is 50% off it’s peak in Covenant how do you respond to that?  Do you feel like it’s a better deal than the property that is only 30% off the peak in another neighborhood – some parts of Irvine for example.

It’s an interesting concept to consider.  Every buyer I talk to has one request in common – a good deal.  I think that’s an important thing to define in your search for a home.  Is the ‘deal’ the predominant factor, really?  Is the long term value of the community a consideration?  Do the amenities impact your decision?

However, one may consider the long term prospective recovery in Covenant Hills as a real opportunity.

It really begs the question – from a buyer perspective, what do you consider a ‘good deal’ in this environment?

Short Sales and Volume

Some things to note from the above numbers, in 2008 the foreclosed/bank owned homes were the more common distressed property available.  In 2009 the tide shifted and short sales played a much more significant role, one which grew further this year.

Also, it’s interesting to note volume.  Nearly across the board, the number of sales increased from 2008 to 2009.  Jury is out for 2010 – but my personal opinion, given the expiration of the Housing Tax Credit, things may be fairly quiet for the 4th quarter of this year.

Jon Lanser with the Orange County Register recently did a post breaking down the number of sales and the change in median price per zip code that might be interesting to check out.

Today the microscope is on Mission Viejo.

So many of the media numbers focus on Orange County performance, but real estate performance can vary dramatically within our large county and particularly at various price points.

I’m going to spend the next several posts breaking down each of the South Orange County cities to give you an idea of local performance.  Whether you are buying, selling, or just keeping an eye on your local market, these numbers tell the story.

BTW Dear Friends/Readers, if you find this number crunching downright boring – stay tuned.  I always come back to the conversations that are much more fun than this! 

Homes Under $500,000

I think one of the revealing things about the under $500,000 market is the fact that while nearly 68% of the active inventory are short sales, they make up less than 28% of the homes that closed in the last 30 days. Demand also is high for bank owned product but very little currently exists – only 6.2% in this price range.

Homes $500,000 to $750,000

Again, very little inventory in the bank owned market, but significant demand.  There were very few sales in $500,000 to $750,000 market, as well as the $750,000 market as shown below.

It’s important to note where the demand is: of the closed sales in the last 30 days 81.1% have been in the under $500,000 market.

Homes Over $750,001

Interestingly, there are significantly less short sales in this price point. The bad news – sales are slow and with current buying trends, it would take 12.25 months to exhaust the current inventory of homes if nothing else were to come on the market.

However in the under $500,000 market, it would only take 4.12 months to exhaust all the inventory at the current rate of consumption. As I have mentioned many times here, the short sale listings takes months to close and skew the numbers dramatically. With current inventory, it would only take 1.9 months to consume the equity seller and bank owned listings under $500,000.  This sector of the market is no longer a buyers market.

When you are looking to buy a home in Orange County, or anywhere else for that matter, it is critical to drill down into the numbers for the sector of the market that you are looking at.  Orange County numbers are wonderful benchmarks to know, but our market is made up also of submarkets within the OC.  It’s important to understand Absorption Rates, Average Days on Market, price per square foot, sale price to list price, etc.

For every buyer I’m working with, I try to do an analysis that really tells the story of the market they are hoping to buy in.  This allows them to have a realistic picture of the market and compete effectively for the home they hope to buy.

If you are a seller, these numbers will be important to you too.  Even if you are not a buyer or seller right now, hang in there.  This may seem dry, but I’ll try to make it fun.  There is a story told by the numbers every time! 

Today, I did some research for an investor I am working with in Rancho Santa Margarita.  She is looking for a condo around $250,000 that has at least 2 bedrooms and 1 car garage.  I looked at the numbers for Rancho Santa Margarita between $200,000 and $300,000, with a minimum of 2 bedrooms and 1 garage – Active, In Escrow, and Closed Sales going 90 days back.  (I recently did this analysis for a Mission Viejo buyer and only included sales over the previous 30 days, but in this instance that would have been swayed too heavily by the holidays).  Here’s what I found for this submarket:

Active Inventory – 47 Listings

• 34 Short Sales or 72%
• 9 Bank Owned or 19%
• 4 Traditional Sellers or 9%

In Escrow – 22 Listings

• 9 Short Sales or 41%
• 9 Bank Owned or 41%
• 4 Traditional Sellers or 19%

Closed Sales in the Last 90 Days – 27 Listings

• 10 Short Sales or 37%
• 10 Bank Owned or 37%
• 8 Traditional Sellers or 30%

Analysis of Closed Sales

• Short Sales:  Average Days on Market – 96, Sale Price to List 102.17%, $256.47 price per sq. ft.
• Bank Owned: Average Days on Market – 35, Sale Price to List 98.89%,  $248.17 price per sq. ft.
• Traditional Sellers: Average Days on Market – 33 (there was one outlier here that if removed would have made it 14), Sale Price to List Price 96.43%, $263.35 price per sq. ft.

Hey wake up! This is fun – really!

So what does all this tell us?

I’m a little surprised to see that some short sales are getting done in this price range.  We still have a large swing in the percentage of active inventory versus closed sales within the short sale market, but maybe the banks are starting to pull it together.  I’ll be watching.

It’s also still clear that the traditional seller is able to secure a slightly higher price.  The swing was much greater in the Mission Viejo analysis I did earlier, but it is still there.  Why?  I think buyers still love to have full disclosure from a real seller.  They also tend to be properties in slightly better condition.  And the best part – you submit an offer, and a real live person actually responds in sometimes as soon as 24 hours!  Wow!

Still the best ‘deal’ going is the bank owned home.  Just beware, is it still a ‘deal’ if you have to put in a lot of money after the close?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  Each property will require individual analysis to make sure that one is really getting a good value for the home.

Hope this helps my investor – and you.  If you ever are in need of a little Microscope on the Market – just let me know.  Just make sure you’ve had your coffee first.

This particular buyer is looking in Mission Viejo between $450,000 and $550,000.  He wants a single family residence.  With that criteria, I hit the MLS looking for a picture of where we really are. 

As many of you know, I’m the last person to jump on the ‘Hurry Buy Now’ band wagon.  However, if you are in this price range in South Orange County – this is speaking to you.  What did I find?

There are 40 Active single family residences currently listed in Mission Viejo between $450,000 and $550,000.  How do those breakdown?

• 19 are short sales (BTW – refer to my posts on shorts sales to understand the challenges with these sales)
• 4 Bank Owned
• 17 are supposedly equity sellers.  Upon further reading of the agent remarks in the listings 2 more of these are actually short sales and 1 is bank owned.

So, what does this leave us?  14 Traditional, Equity Sellers?  I should add 5 of these 14 are 55+ communities.  There are really only 9 equity sellers in my client’s search criteria out of 40.

It then becomes important to analyze the recent resale activity.  I pulled sales from the last 30 days with the same criteria - Mission Viejo, single family residences, $450 to $550.  Here are the stats:

• 21 Sales
• 6 Bank Owned
• 3 Short Sales
• 13 Traditional Sales (one 55+ community sale)

No rocket scientist needed here.  This is out of balance.

If you are not a numbers person, it’s okay, just try to stick with me here – 52.5% of the Active Inventory are short sales, but last month only 14.3% of the sales were short sales.

12.5% of the Active Inventory is bank owned, but last month 28.6% of the sales were bank owned.

And most telling, 22.5% of the Active Inventory are equity sellers (not to include senior communities), yet the sales from the last 30 days indicate that 51.1% were traditional sellers.

I’m actually not a numbers guru.  I love reading.  I love writing.  But, I also love logic and this should speak volumes to you.  The sellers that don’t have to sell have chosen not to; they’ve heard the message.  Buyers that have been fence sitting or have had affordability problems, have found that it is indeed their time.  Demand does exist.  The inventory may actually be lacking.  Do I hear – supply and demand?

Just to temper my enthusiasm, let’s look the sales prices.  No question – these are some other stats to consider from the last 30 days with that same criteria:

Short Sales – Sold at 98.29% of asking price with an average days on market of 143.  The average price per square foot was $253.09

Bank Owned - Sold at 101.55% of asking price with an average of 16 days on the market.  The average price per square foot was $263.06.

Traditional Sellers -Sold at 97.38% of asking price with an average of 34 days on the market.  The average price per square foot was $323.09.

I will suspect that the knee jerk response is that traditional sellers are overpriced on a per square foot basis – but look at the demand.   There’s a reason these are selling.  They are in superior condition (sometimes by a lot) and you can actually submit an offer to a live body, that has real emotion, and a desire to sell.  What’s the value in that?

So, if you think it’s a buyers’ market, think carefully and ask for the stats.  You need more than a cursory overview.  You need to drill down into the makeup of what it means to get a clear picture of the marketplace.

This is one picture of the OC marketplace, but from what I’m seeing, in certain pricepoints, it’s not isolated.  Thoughts?  I’m open to our interpretation of these numbers.

For the rest of you that might be curious about what I have in mind, I’ll share with you some of what happened to me this week.  Brace yourself because I feel a rant coming on….

As I have said countless times on this blog, short sales are a HUGE factor that is driving our market prices and inventory in Orange County.  For example, 64% of the active homes on the market today in Rancho Santa Margarita, under $500,000, are short sales!  In Mission Viejo, 50% of homes active on the market today under $500,000 are short sales. 

These short sales have offers that have been submitted to banks and are just awaiting approval.  They may have multiple offers.  This is buyer demand that is waiting and the last thing we need in this market is pent up buyer demand waiting.

I’d like to share with you a story about one of my short sale listings.  Within 72 hoursof listing the home back in May, I had 4 offers for asking price, and over.  We submitted them to the bank, along with the package from my seller that clearly qualified for a hardship.  The following dialogue is from this week between my short sale coordinator and the the banking institution’s (a very common and well known lender) negotiator.

My Short Sale Coordinator:

“We now had 4 buyer’s who have cancelled, including the last offer we submitted due to the fact that this process has taken almost 6 months.  We just can’t keep buyers around that long and we can’t keep the value the same for that period of time.  Values are dropping.  We do have another offer, but it is lower than any offer we have received.

“At this point we, as long with the seller, are at a loss as to what to do.  Do you have any suggestions, or any time frame that we can tell buyers?”

The Bank Negotiator:

“I will have to cancel this file because the buyers are no longer interested.  I suggest faxing in the new offer.  Because it is a new offer it will be considered a new file.  Anytime you have a new buyer it starts all over.  A short sale can take 4 - 6 months.  When you send in a  new contract the time frame starts all over. ”

The negotiator goes on to say that they are trying to make time frames shorter and the last response time was 30 days.  But in my experience, that response is inconsistent at best and clearly, they aren’t willing to commit to anything better than 4 to 6 months.

So what’s my big idea?  Let’s save a big bailout expense.  Forget giving money to banks with no accountability for how they use it.  Instead, let’s create an efficient, streamlined method of handling the massive number of properties that are in foreclosure and that are short sales. 

In the case of my listing, it may take one year to get a buyer in that property and a closed sale.  In the meantime, values are detrimentally impacted,  inventory remains misleadingly high,  property condition deteriorates, and suffering sellers can’t restart their lives.  If you shorten this process to 90 days, can you imagine the positive impact on our market?  Just think, 6 months ago I had 4 buyers that wanted to pay full or over list price.  Today’s buyers are thinking about 20% less than that.  THAT is a huge reason prices continue to decline in Orange County and in many parts of the country.

Maybe this is too simplistic.  Maybe this addresses only part of the problem.  But, if we are looking at some of the real, on the ground solutions for the much touted ‘Main Street,’ this seems like a great place to start.  Like I said, to those influential individuals and government institutions dying to hear my Bailout alternative, I’ll be standing by waiting for your call.

I thought we’d be in this condition at least until Spring of ’09, because historically election years are not strong real estate years.  Even summer of ’04 was a tough patch in our market.  With the financial crisis, energy crisis, inflation pressure, and overall economic state, combined with the bizarre election year, I have begun to wonder if Spring ’09 was even too optimistic.

When a client and friend asked me the question recently, I discussed some of this with him and thought ‘this is a great blog topic!’ 

The one thing I am sure of is that until our short sale, foreclosure, and bank owned inventory is absorbed, the market will not begin to recover.   The traditional sellers are forced to compete with these listings and this continues to drag prices down.

I wondered how much of this inventory made up our existing market.  One of my listings is a condo in Rancho Santa Margarita for $285,000 with 2 bedrooms.  There are currently 36 listings with 2 bedrooms under $300,000 in Rancho Santa Margarita but of those only 9 are NOT short sales! 

So how much of the current market is in ‘distress’?  I should have paid more attention in my Excel class because I would love to chart this (add Excel to my list of technology skills to work on).  The following breaks it down a bit for just some of our local cities as of 5/21/08 (please note that distress sales are all things bank owned, short pays, probate, foreclosure, etc. and all information was gathered from stats on SoCalMLS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed):

Rancho Santa Margarita                                      Canyon Areas

Active Listings           383                                           Active Listings           177

Distress Sales           152  or  40%                            Distress Sales           66 or 37%

Laguna Niguel                                                        Laguna Hills

Active Listings           446                                         Active Listings           205

Distress Sales           152 or 34%                              Distress Sales           80 or 39% 

Mission Viejo                                                           Coto de Caza

Active Listings           450                                           Active Listings           166

Distress Sales           185 or 41%                               Distress Sales           33 or 20% 

Aliso Viejo                                                                Ladera Ranch

Active Listings           301                                          Active Listings           310

Distress                      133 or 44%                              Distress Sales           103 or 33%

If you were to look at some of the coastal communities the numbers are significantly lower:

Newport Coast and Newport Beach     6%

Laguna Beach  7%

Dana Point  12 %

Currently, higher price posts are less impacted than properties like my $285,000 condo in RSM but according to the May 20th artcile in the LA Times, luxury homes prices are beginning to feel the impact.

I’ll continue to watch and post these numbers.  As the # of distress sales begin to decline, that is a likely indicator that the market is beginning a true recovery.