Orange County coastal real estate for sale in Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach & Newport Coast

For the past several months clients have been coming through my frequent open houses in the Newport Heights community of Newport Beach asking the same question- how is the housing market doing in this area? I have been telling them that the premium properties along the coast have been holding their values far better than their inland counterparts. Here is an article from the California Real Estate Journal ( by Chris Hawkins, a bankruptcy attorney ) which outlines several reasons for the stability of this isolated market segment.

But I believe another factor is that the Southern California economy is doing better than many other regional economies around the country. Here are the reasons why I believe that to be the case.

Construction and real estate are hurting here, obviously (and my colleagues and I do see a lot of clients in these fields under financial stress). But other prominent sectors of the regional economy are picking up the slack and softening the blow.

Domestic tourism, although slightly down, is still holding steady in Southern California. Many Americans who used to fly overseas for vacation are staying home due to airline prices, currency valuations and security reasons - and they are now staying domestic,…

Anyone contemplating the purchase of a home in the Orange County coastal area may want to consider staying at one of the areas fine hotels for a few days to explore all that the community has to offer. The following article from the OCeanfront web-site outlines a little about the most luxurious of these hotels. In addition the OCeanfront web-site is an excellent place to learn about accommodations and resort activities in the Orange County coastal area.

TWO ELITE PROPERTIES ARE ADDED TO THE OCEANFRONT DESTINATION MARKETING ALLIANCE

The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel And The Resort at Pelican Hill To Participate In The Promotion Of Coastal Orange County

THE OCEANFRONT, ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. – The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel and the Resort at Pelican Hill (set to open in December of this year) recently joined The OCeanfront, an exclusive destination marketing alliance organized to promote Orange County, California’s most prestigious coastal destinations, according to an announcement by Blaise Bartell, chairman of The OCeanfront. The OCeanfront alliance now consists of the area’s 12 leading hotels and resorts, golf club operators, shopping venues and convention and visitors bureaus spanning
the 42-mile stretch of coastline from Huntington Beach to Dana Point.

“The addition of The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel and The Resort at…

According to an article by the National Association of Home Builders builder confidence rises for the the first time in seven months.

September 16, 2008 - Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes rose for the first time in seven months this September, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today. The HMI gained two points to 18, rising from its record low of the previous two months.

“Builders have several reasons to be more optimistic at this time,” noted NAHB President Sandy Dunn, a home builder from Point Pleasant, W.Va. “Many are sensing that home sales are nearing a turning point with the support of the newly enacted first-time home buyer tax credit. Meanwhile, with the government’s explicit backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now assured, this should help keep mortgage rates at very favorable levels going forward.”

Following the Treasury Department’s announcement that it was placing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship last week, the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate conforming home mortgages declined by nearly half a percentage point, falling to below 6 percent for the first time in several months. Market responses to the Lehman Brothers…

Have you been wondering what is being developed on the ocean side of the Pacific Coast Highway as you enter Laguna Beach from the north? Here is an article from the Los Angeles Times that explains the development –

El Morro Village: Unpaving paradise near Laguna Beach

Two years after El Morro Village was finally vacated, construction has begun on the state’s first new coastal campground in decades.

By Susannah Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:47 AM PDT, August 25, 2008

El Morro Village: Unpaving paradise

All that’s left of the 295 seaside trailers just north of Laguna Beach, once festooned with flowerpots and tidy patios, are some crumbling concrete slabs. And memories.

Dump trucks and earthmovers are scraping across 35 acres of canyon and beach, transforming the funky little enclave that was El Morro Village into Southern California’s first coastal campground in two decades.

State parks officials and environmentalists trumpet the $12-million construction project, which began last month, as a victory for public access and the preservation of pristine Orange County coastline.

“Tens of thousands of added Californians and people from all across the nation can now enjoy this spot of Southern California paradise,” said state parks spokesman Roy Stearns. “It opens up a whole new coastal ocean…

Here is more up-beat housing market news in this article from the Wall Street Journal.

R.O.I.
By BRETT ARENDS

Is Housing Slump at a Bottom?
May 6, 2008 7:28 p.m.

Is it time, at long last, to head down to Florida to start looking at homes?

Maybe.

And the nearby chart shows one reason why.

It comes from Wellesley College Prof. Karl E. Case, one of the leading experts on the housing market in the country. And it suggests we may be at, or near, the bottom of the housing crash.

Of course, even if he’s wrong we won’t know for sure for many months.

But new housing starts have at last slumped below the seemingly magical one million mark. That happened in March. Every time that has happened in the last 50 years, it proved to be the bottom of a recession.

“It is really remarkable how much where we are today looks like the bottom we’ve had in the last three cycles,” Mr. Case says. “Every time we’ve gone below a million starts, the market has cleared at that moment.”

There is no guarantee this market will be the same but the similarities with the past are striking. Each boom peaked at around the same level of 2.5 million starts…

Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal which provides another indication that the housing market is starting to recover.

OPINION

The Housing Crisis Is Over
By CYRIL MOULLE-BERTEAUX
May 6, 2008; Page A23

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won’t happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005. New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50% and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.

Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So…

Here is a brief article about an interview with real estate investor Sam Zell on CNBC “Squawk Box”.

By CNBC.com | 26 Feb 2008 | 09:43 AM ET

The US economy will avoid recession as the housing market begins to recover this spring, according to billionaire investor Sam Zell.

Speaking on “Squawk Box” this morning, Zell attributed much of the current economic troubles to fear-mongering and politicking by Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

“Obviously what we have going on is an attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Zell, chairman of Equity Investments Group and owner of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other companies. “We have two Democratic candidates who are vying with each other to describe the economic situation worse.

“The reality is that if you live on Wall Street and you’re in the credit markets the world couldn’t be worse. If you’re a farmer and you’re getting $25 for your wheat, you’re having a great time. If you’re a CEO and you’ve got a balance sheet that’s bullet-proof, you’re in a great position. This whole thing is way out of control, way out of hand.”

Zell said that although he doesn’t try to pick bottoms in markets…

A press release from the UCLA Anderson 2008 first quarterly report contains the following encouraging news about the California housing market in the latter part of 2008 and through 2009:

Our no-recession forecast remains nervously intact. We see a lot of problems in the first half of 2008, as housing remains a drag on GDP growth and weakness in personal consumption contributes as well,” he writes. “We expect one quarter of negative GDP growth. The Fed continues to dish out good news for Wall Street with ever lower interest rates. The labor market is sluggish and unemployment elevates to 5.5 percent by the end of 2008. But the housing drag on GDP dissipates in the second half of the year and a normal economy returns in 2009.

This brief quote gives a glimpse of light at the end of the current housing crises tunnel from the generally pessimistic outlook of the Anderson Reports.

Here is an interesting excerpt from yet another depressing article issued December 21, 2007 by the California Association of Realtors.

• Statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during November 2007 were: Newport Beach, $1,400,000; Saratoga, $1,300,000; Santa Monica, $1,100,000; Cupertino, $1,074,090; Santa Barbara, $1,065,000; Danville, $1,021,000; Yorba Linda, $910,000; San Clemente, $870,000; Redwood City, $822,500 and San Francisco, $814,500.
• Statewide, the 13* cities and communities with the greatest median home price increases in November 2007 compared with the same period a year ago were: San Juan Capistrano, 42.3 percent; Newport Beach, 31.5 percent; Santa Monica, 29.4 percent; Mountain View, 18 percent; Cupertino, 18 percent; Truckee, 10.2 percent; Redwood City, 9.7 percent; Yorba Linda, 9.6 percent; Santa Barbara, 7.5 percent; Moorpark, 7.2 percent; San Francisco, 7.2 percent; Pasadena, 7.2 percent; and Los Angeles, 5.8 percent.

This is just another indication that prices of property located in desirable areas continue to hold steady or increase even during the current real estate downturn.

Here is an article from the Daily Pilot which outlines a proposed land exchange with the Irvine Company. The parcel is four acres on the waterfront of the back bay just below the Castaways development.

Newport Beach city officials say the acquisition of a 4-acre piece of land on East Coast Highway with access to Upper Newport Bay as part of a multi-million-dollar development agreement with the Irvine Co. is a boon for the city.

“I think we’ll look back on it, and this will be one of the major benefits of this deal,” said Councilman Steve Rosansky, who helped broker the Irvine Co. deal, along with Mayor Ed Selich. “It’s one of the last pieces of undeveloped land on the waterfront.”[read more...]