1 1/2-year drop in homes for sale halted

January 22nd, 2013, 11:15 am · · posted by Jeff Collins

The number of homes for sale in Orange County increased for the first time in 1 1/2 years, rising to3,249 for-sale listings as of Jan. 17, Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com reported this week.

That’s up from an 8 1/2-year low of 3,161 homes for sale on Jan. 3.

“The drop has stopped!” Thomas said in his report. “It simply had to eventually go up. … More homes are finally coming on the market, just not at the rate customary for the very beginning of the year. Over the past month, there were 16 percent fewer homes that were placed on the market compared to the same time last year.”

Thomas’ figures show that last week’s tally still was the second lowest number of homes for sale in records dating back to June 2004.

Listings have fallen from one report to the next every two weeks since early July 2011. In October 2007, Orange County had nearly 17,800 homes for sale.

Thomas believes that inventory will remain tight.

“The anemic levels are here to stay until the Spring market starts to rev its engine with more homes placed on the market, cyclically around the Super Bowl,” he said. “The inventory will not skyrocket higher though and will continue to be an issue throughout the year. Last year at this time there were 8,080 homes on the market, 4,831 more than today.”