Laguna Beach Real Estate News ... Page III (Continued)

 

Laguna Update 10/05/07

The weather is glorious in Laguna Beach and so is the real estate market.  Some amazing homes have recently sold; my favorite home just closed escrow in the Temple Hills section of Laguna Beach for $6 million.  This Laguna Beach estate was very special with Cape Cod/Craftsman architecture, completely and painstakingly remodeled, on a huge private lot with a pool and ocean views.

It still amazes me how the media continues to focus on only the negative things in the real estate market.  This is nothing new of course.  Remember the press needs and creates negative taglines to sell papers, magazines and television space.

Here are sample headlines from the past:

 

“The goal of owning a home seems to be getting beyond the reach of more and more Americans.  The typical new house today costs about $28,000”.

 Business Week-1969

 

“The median price of a home today is approaching $50,000…housing experts predict price rises in the future won’t be that great.”

National Business-1977

 

“The golden-age of risk free run-ups in home prices is gone.”

Money Magazine-1985

 

“A home is where the bad investment is.” 

San Francisco Examiner-1996

 

I wish the typical house today cost $28,000!  Don’t you?  I bet most of you would take the typical house at $50,000.  There are plenty of positive things happening in the market right now.  The inventory levels are stabilizing, the interest rates are steady, buyers are in the market and most importantly, homes are selling in all price categories and areas. In fact, the median price in California is up in August 07 from August 06 by 2.0%.  Orange County’s median for homes is up 1.9% for August over last year.   Laguna Beach’s median price is down just slightly.

History is wonderful forecaster of where we are going.  The typical housing downturn lasts 27 months and we are currently in the 25th month of this downturn.  Prices within California, Orange County and Laguna Beach have settled and they are poised to go back up.  You can never predict where the bottom of a market is until it has started to move back up.  I firmly believe NOW is an excellent time to buy while sellers are still feeling the effects of all the negative publicity.  In fact on Larry King Live last week, internationally acclaimed personal finance expert Suzie Orman told his viewers that right now is a wonderful time to buy.  She believes that the real estate market has bottomed and buyers should take advantage of this opportunity. California, the golden state, produces 15% of the GDP for the United States.  Orange County is a large factor in that equation and the residence of choice is Laguna Beach and Laguna Niguel.  You would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful place to come home to every night than Laguna Beach or Laguna Niguel.  Driving along the Coast Highway with the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island is a most spectacular sight!

My prediction for the rest of the year, the Laguna Beach real estate market is going to improve and all the people waiting will be sorry they did not buy during the fall.  I believe after the Holidays, the market will start moving up and people will regret their decisions of not buying during the Fall season.    So please do not be caught on the sidelines ... make your smartest real estate buy right now.  You have been waiting seven years for this market to come; it is here now!  Laguna Beach is waiting just for you!

 

State of the Market

Laguna Beach is still selling!  Year to date, we have seen 7 beach front in Laguna Beach sell within a price range of $4.7 million to $8 million.  Currently, there are 2 ocean front homes in escrow at $16 million and the active inventory of coastal property is 12 homes ranging in price from $6.5 million to $15 million.  Of the active inventory of coastal homes, there are 2 extremely good beach front properties to buy. 

A bluff front, coastal  estate located within the gated community of Camel Point in South Laguna Beach... which was built in 1995 and has breathtaking views up the coast, a fabulous outdoor entertaining space with a spa and steps to the beach. It is priced at $15 million. 

Another wonderful coastal home in Laguna Beach is located at Diamond and Ocean Way in the Village.  This coastal home sits directly above the beach, has an amazing view of the ocean crashing against the rocks.  It does need some updating and it is priced at $8 million. With 2 ocean front homes in escrow and an active inventory of 12 coastal homes, we have only a 6 month supply of coastal property in Laguna Beach... which is a historical low! Do not miss out. Buy your dream home on the coast in Laguna Beach.

 

Chairmans' Circle Award Winners!

Hillary Caston and Associates honored with 2006 Platinum Chairman’s Circle Award for Top Sales Associates - Southern California!  Prudential California Realty honored its 2006 top Sales Associates, Hillary Caston and Associates, in the Saturday, March 17, 2007, edition of the Real Estate Daily Pilot with the prestigious Platinum Chairman’s Circle Award! Along with Hillary Caston and Associates, several top agents from the Southern California real estate market were honored. The Orange County real estate offices represented were Corona Del Mar , Newport Beach, Laguna Beach to include the 350 Broadway real estate office, 1110 Glenneyre real estate office and the Treasure Island real estate office. Also included in the awards were top producing agents from the San Clemente, and Monarch Beach offices.

 

Credit Scores-Orange County Real Estate

Orange County Real Estate Investors: A better Credit Score means bigger Savings to you! Having too many credit cards will hurt your credit score. While it made sense to get an on the spot credit card at your favorite retail store to get 15-20 percent off, getting rid of as many cards as possible will help your credit score to rise. Your payment history on your mortgage is the number one factor influencing the mortgages that you will qualify for and at what interest rate. Having more than two or three Mastercards or Visas, where you are near the maximum credit limit will also really drop your scores. Ideally, to increase your credit scores, you want to have only 2 or 3 of these credit cards, where you are nowhere near your maximum credit limit. You should try to get your credits increased, when you hardly owe money. This is the most likely time that you will be granted an increase and it will further cause your credit scores to move higher.

 

Foreclosures in Orange County Are Up!  Real Estate Sellers Want Out and Buyers are Looking!

Why is everyone talking about foreclosures? Unfortunately the answer is that many mortgage brokers and lenders are putting thousands of borrowers into bad loans that they simply can’t afford to pay. Until recently home values were soaring and more and more people leveraged themselves when either buying or refinancing a home. What’s even worse is many lenders allowed and continue to allow their perspective borrowers to lie about their income.

So what are you to do about all of the foreclosures? Well, if you are a seller, within the Southern Organge County real estate market suddenly struggling with a higher monthly mortgage payment, you should consider selling. Selling your home before it hits pre-foreclosure status can save you time, money and a lot of stress. Sellers who ultimately fall behind and have their property enter into pre-foreclosure status generally will loose 20-28 percent of their homes value. So, it certainly behooves borrowers to sell their home before going into default on their mortgage.

For buyers, are there good deals to be had in foreclosure, absolutely but there are some bad ones as well. One needs to be careful when purchasing a home anywhere in the foreclosure process. A well educated person stands so much more to gain during this complicated process and working with competent people to ensure the successful closure of a transaction is paramount to your financial success!

 

News From The Laguna Beach Coastal Property Experts

Hillary Caston and Associates offer new marketing tools for sellers! Sellers today need a specialized marketing program that enables more exposure and convenience to buyers who want to access properties which are for sale. In today’s competitive Orange County real estate market specifically Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Monarch Beach, Newport Beach and other coastal properties, getting your home sold fast and at the highest price possible can be completed easily if marketed effectively and correctly.

As a home seller in today’s competitive real estate market, you know how important it is to have your property represented by a real estate agent who can implement an effective strategy to getting your home sold. Ultimately, maximum exposure to potential buyers is what is going to get your home sold. Through image maker virtual tours we can provide the most awesome marketing strategy available to you completely free!

Hillary Caston and Associates have partnered with California Image Maker (CIM) to help you get the maximum exposure you need to get your home sold in Orange County. We can now market your home with an image maker 360 virtual tour that will represent your property with the best virtual media available and posting your home listing to the top National Real Estate Web portals such as Realtor.com Homeweb.com, and homeseekers.com. This marketing strategy will serve as an invaluable tool to reach your ultimate goal, getting your home sold!

 

Economic Update from Laguna Beach

We just attended the California Association of Realtor yearly convention in Sacramento and the news from the event is very encouraging!  The chief economist for the Association was called away from the convention; however, her assistant did a fantastic job.

Job growth across the U.S. and in California is still very good and healthy.  Of particular interest is the fact that the housing component of the U.S. economy is roughly 23%. Job growth for California is a positive number of 453,000 new jobs.  When you look at the job growth figure, you need to look at the unemployment figures as well.  Both California and the U.S. have low unemployment figures and California is tracking the U.S at roughly 5.1%.  Unemployment in Laguna Beach is also very low.  Our local economy is based around the artists, the Montage Resort and the real estate market.

The mortgage rates are another hot topic of the update.  Interest rates are moving up and in fact they are at a new high for the year.  The mortgage rates are expected to continue their rise through the rest of year.  With interest rates comes the question of the sub-prime market and foreclosures. The foreclosure rate is currently at .6% of all loans within the state of California.  Foreclosures are a natural occurrence in any real estate market and mortgage rates take that fact into account when they price a loan.  The sub-prime market has had an affect on the real estate market. The upside of the sub-prime market is that home ownership has increased to an all time high!  Laguna Beach has very few foreclosures right now and the sub-prime has had little effect on the Laguna Beach real estate.

Which way is the real estate market going and to be exact the Laguna Beach real estate market?   With all the positive numbers in the economy, job growth and unemployment, the real estate market is actually very healthy.  It is not a buyers market nor a sellers market but a neutral market which is very healthy.  The median price is predicted to move up and the unit sales will move down or stabilize from there all time high in 2005. Laguna Beach homes are still selling very well and at higher prices than expected.

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