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The Laguna Niguel real estate market, part of the larger and generally upscale Orange County housing market, saw a disappointing decline in both the quantity of home sales and the median sales price of properties during the end of 2010. According to the Orange County Metro and statistics provided by MDA DataQuick, the last few months of the year saw a lackluster and mildly negative performance, largely as a response to unfavorable conditions in the overall economy. Many experts attribute this lethargy to the hesitance of lenders to extend additional lines of credit as well as the failure of the job market to recover fully or quickly. According to DataQuick, there were a grand total of 2,739 residential properties sold in the entirety of Orange County, marking a month-over-month increase of about twenty-one percent but representing a yearly decline of approximately five percent. This trend mirrored the behavior of the larger Southern California, which also registered a month-over-month rally and a yearly decline. One local expert noted that a monthly increase in the quantity is expected for the season, although the monthly boost in sales figures was higher than the usual bump between November and December. This can be at least partially attributed to persistently low mortgage rates and depressed property prices.
Laguna Niguel homes for sale and other properties in Orange County commanded a lower purchase price in December 2010 compared to year ago levels, according to MDA DataQuick and the Orange County Business Journal. DataQuick’s statistics indicated that the median price of Orange County properties in December was $410,000, marking a decrease of roughly six percent from year-ago levels. Similarly, median prices dipped by roughly six percent compared to November 2010, depressing selling prices to their lowest levels in more than a year. Foreclosures or distressed properties accounted for more than a third of the home sales in Southern California, although the proportion of distressed to “normal” sales declined by about five percent year-over-year. This means that the decline in median price is not the result of more foreclosed properties, but rather a broader market shift including slightly higher tiers of the real estate market.
