As we enter into the Summer market, the number of houses available for sale has increased and with it so has the amount of days it is taking the average home to get into escrow. The Orange County, California areas of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Irvine and beyond are now officially in the summer season.
This year is much like the years before it. Ryan Byrne and many a real estate agent are seeing more open houses in their neighborhoods and are also seeing more for sale signs all throughout their neighborhoods. There are not as many buyers as there were a few weeks ago. As many real estate agents in Orange County will tell you, it is not as busy and homes aren’t going into escrow as quickly as they did before. This of course is making some sellers grow concerned. So what is it that’s going on? We are in the Summer season when most sellers decide to put their home on the market but the number of buyers looking for a purchase doesn’t change much.
This of course is the part of the year when the school year comes to an end and free summer concerts begin. Many families are welcoming home their kids from college. And there will be lots of beach activity and events for families to attend, Breitling Huntington Beach Air Show and the US Open of Surfing to name a few. With all this other summer time activity, there will be a bit less real estate activity than we saw during the Spring market as we normally see during this time of year.
While the summer shift is to be expected, it’s much more dramatic than what we saw this time last year. So not only was the change more dramatic this year, it also happened a lot earlier than we have seen in years past.
The hottest part of this very hot sellers’ market when demand for homes was the highest happened between February and March. Since then market time has increased by more than 10 days. Market time to sell a home will continue to rise until active inventory tops out some time towards the end of summer. And of course the longer homeowners wait to place their homes on the market the longer the average home will take to sell. So if you aren’t working with Ryan Byrne and are working with an average agent who might be slow to make adjustments, the wait and impact to the home sale will increase as time goes on.
According to the data, 11% of the current homes available for sale are reducing their asking prices every week. We can see these price changes occurring in every single price range even the entry level homes market in Orange County. Buyers are a little more hesitant to pay more than what homes are worth than they were just a couple of months ago. That being said, with Spring behind us, it is still the second best time of the year to have your home on the market.
Ryan Byrne works as a Home Selling Specialist in Orange County, California.
To Bring in Byrne for all your real estate needs, call 714-540-1744.