Orange County Housing Numbers For February 2023

Orange County homes for sale at the end of February were 2,913. This is a increase of 51 for sales from January 2023 when the month end had 2,862 homes available. The number of homes sold in February was 2,429. This is significantly lower than February 2022 when the County had 4,442 homes sold. Last month had a strong closing surge toward the end to avoid becoming only the sixth time in 16 years when February sales in OC dropped below the typically low January sales number. 

February ended sales in OC with 9% more than January. The center price is sales for this February – the median – was $970,00 compared to an even $1,000,000 in February 2022. This is the third month in a row with a decline year-over-year price. Each was marked with a slight decline. February’s median sales price was greater by $20,000 than the January median, marking the first upturn for this since August 2022. Distressed properties for sale continue to be a very small portion of the market. 

Homes that went into escrow in February dropped sharply from the previous month. Only 929 homes went into contract in February, compared to 1,289 in the normally quiet month of January. Looking back to February 2022 and 2021, the drop is even greater. 2,218 homes went pending in 2022 and 2,773 in 2021. Another comparison is to recognize that this is the lowest month of pending sales in more than 15 years. January 2008 during the beginning of the mortgage meltdown had 1,300 homes go into escrow and April 2020, the first full month of covid lock down, still had 1,254 homes find buyers. This is a surprising number for February and one to watch as we hope it is an anomaly to the otherwise hopeful indicators

Please give us a call at Premier Funding Network to answer any of your mortgage questions at 714-283-9900.