Laguna Home Sales Continue Slide

Dataquick's latest numbers are out for July. The number of properties sold in Laguna Beach is down 8% as compared to last July. Last July was not a good selling month and the market has slid even lower than that. This is a down indicator during what otherwise should be the peak of the typical selling season. The volume decrease is an irresistable market force that will drive prices lower. And prices have gone down for family homes - stay tuned for a post on this. All of t his does not bode well for the second half of 2008. Lookout below!

Severe Price Cut Shows Real Recession in Laguna Beach Home Prices

Happy new year(?)

The lack of many sales in the last half of 2007 has left BlueMove and everyone else without much information on the real valuation of Laguna Beach home prices.

Well, wonder no longer. Someone wants to sell and that someone is probably a bank that now owns 581 Diamond Street, Laguna Beach, California. A 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 2100 sq. ft. home. This home was just listed in the MLS.

Asking Price: $1,449,500
Prior Purchase Price: $2,144,641 (August 2007)
Prior Purchase Price: $2,600,000 (April 2005)

If the house were to sell at the asking price, the total loss from the peak would be about $1,250,000, including real estate commissions. If the home sells, it could show what it takes to actually sell a mid level house in Laguna Beach in today's market. Such a price, a 50% loss, is a wipe out, wash out and a blow up.

More to come on local listings. In the meantime, it is scary how fast prices are falling! OC home prices are going down.

Prime Beach Properties Roll Back To 2005 Prices

Blue Lagoon is a condo complex located just to the north of the Montage resort, between PCH and the beach. A look at the listings reveals price rollbacks to 2005 levels:

15 Blue Lagoon - Listed at $1.69M; Purchased 9/05 for $1.69M

4 Blue Lagoon - Sold $970k; Purchased 8/05 for $1.05M

Is this the bottom or just the first cracks in the Laguna Beach housing market?

Chapman Economists Predict OC Recession in 08 and 8% Loss in Home Prices in 08

The OC, normally a solid job engine, is headed for a recession in 2008, according to economists at Chapman University. Chapman economists Esmael Adibi and Jim Doti have been predicting job growth in Orange County for 30 years. They say job numbers will turn negative starting in the second quarter of 2008 and stay negative in the third quarter. That qualifies as a recession, according to Chapman’s definition. “There is little doubt that the economy is hurting from the demise of real-estate related activity,” the economists write. “It is clear that construction and financial activities are the weakest sectors of the economy followed by trade, transportation and utilities which are indirectly affected by the housing market.”
Most importantly, they also foresee an 8.1 percent drop in the median price of a resale single-family home in 2008. Applied to a Laguna Beach home bought today for $2,000,000, that would mean a $160,000 loss in one year. Scary for homes in Laguna Beach.

You can view the story here.

Huge Resale Losses in Laguna Beach

Cal State Fullerton professor Michael LaCour-Little has done a study looking at recent sellers of O.C. homes who sold for less money than they paid. (And that’s losses without transaction costs figured in.) Laguna Beach was the top lower in Orange County with a staggering average of about $577,000 per money losing home sale.

He also found that 37.6% of all sales he tracked resulted in a loss and typical ownership tenure of losers was two years.

These deep losses weren’t the most startling result to LaCour-Little. Rather, he was startled by how the size and scope losses grew as the year progressed. For example, losing sales were slightly more than 20% of deals tracked in January but nearly 70% in October. “I didn’t expect to see so much of a time trend,” LaCour-Little said.

You can get the full story here.