Orange County Distressed Property Report

As the total inventory has been going up since the beginning of the year, so have the number of distressed homes on the market. They have been increasing at a slower rate then the total inventory, so the percentage of distressed homes in inventory has been declining. The supply of distressed homes which continue to appear on the market represents the lid on prices. In the most recent report, distressed homes in inventory increased by 19 units, to 2,814 homes. These properties represent 31.6% of the active inventory, which is down from a recent high of 35% hit in January.

The number and percentage of distressed homes on the market represents the much predicted flood of new foreclosures. Any increase in the total number of distressed properties on the market represents a watermark in the tide of foreclosures, but this increase of only 19 units barely registers on our flood gage. The waters have not started to recede yet—we will keep watch.

In this article series we report on the numbers for Orange County in total. Real estate is very local and any buying or selling decisions should be based on circumstances of specific neighborhoods. This series is intended to provide information about general countywide trends in supply and demand.

All real estate data in this article is from a report published by Steven Thomas of Altera Real Estate.

This report appears on www.OC180NEWS.com every other Monday.