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This is the question people frequently ask when they want to hear about the current state of the real estate market. In truth, it really varies city by city and area by area. This post will focus broadly on South Orange County.

Without exception, this is a buyer’s market. That means there is more inventory available than what is being absorbed through closed sales. Even though that’s true throughout South County, there are some areas where asking prices are inching upward. For example, Laguna Beach prices have been moving higher, but sales have not supported this trend, suggesting that pricing is fragile. Ladera Ranch and Laguna Niguel have seen sales exceeding new listings for the past several weeks, suggesting that prices may move higher. Newport Coast and San Clemente have also seen sales exceed new listings, but prices in those communities have responded with an upward trend. None of these cities is yet in the range of being a seller’s market, but if this trend continues, that may change.

Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Lake Forest and San Juan Capistrano markets are cooler, with sales either flat or slightly down.
Pricing in all of these areas has stayed fairly neutral. Days on market (the time it takes to sell a property) has trended downward for South County and was fairly consistent across the board.

People are out looking at properties with many of them taking advantage of depressed property values combined with unprecedented low interest rates.