Despite slower sales, 2019 is shaping up as a good market

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We are still in the upswing of the busiest time in our local real estate market, when we see the highest number of sales, and we see inventory and demand increasing.

So, if you have a mind to sell this year, you still have time to get your house on the market and into the pool of available homes. Waiting until the end of May will put you into the start of the summer market, when demand slows down, inventory creeps up, and it will take even longer to sell.

Yes, it takes longer this year to sell your house than last year. The good news is that mortgage interest rates are down from the end of last year and are expected to hover between 4.25% and 4.5% for the remainder of this year. This, hopefully, will get more prospective buyers off the fence and into the home of their dreams.

Here’s another bit of good news for sellers: Job growth in south Orange County (consisting of 11 cities, 126 square miles and 608,864 people) is stable, Anthony Y. Teng, MBA CPA CITP CGMA, Dean of Advanced Technology and Applied Science at Saddleback College, reported this week at the South Orange County Economic Coalition 2019 Economic Report, which I was honored to attend as a representative of the Orange County Association of Realtors.

He further reported that the largest employers by industry in south Orange County are retail/hospitality/tourism, health care, and manufacturing.

The most significant hurdle we currently face is a housing affordability gap. South O.C. average annual earnings equal $62,559 while the median income needed to afford an entry-level home is $101,970. That’s an affordability gap of $39,411 for a single-wage earner to purchase an entry-level home in South O.C.

How do you solve a problem like that, Maria?

One way many homeowners bridge that gap is to get their spouse, partner, parent, or financially capable significant other a job in the retail/hospitality/tourism, health care, or manufacturing field so he or she can co-sign the home loan and pony up for part of the mortgage payment.

The good news for current South O.C. homebuyers is that Mr. Teng expects home values to continue to rise over the next 12 months.

He even disclosed that he’s compared his data with Jonathan Lansner’s data, and they both agree that on a scale of 1 to 5 — 1 being equal to no chance of a housing bubble and 5 being equal to the certainty of a bubble — we are at DEFCON 3 – a neutral position on a bubble and a very stable position as far as home values are concerned.

Leslie Sargent Eskildsen is an agent with Realty One Group. She can be reached at 949-678-3373 or leslie@leslieeskildsen.com.

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