From the monthly archives:

May 2006

Mission Viejo Average and Median Home Prices – 2006′

by Vincent Bindi on May 31, 2006

The real estate market in south Orange County, CA and Mission Viejo has slowed down substantially as compared to last year, and is now a Neutral market.  The months of inventory for south Orange County (including Mission Viejo) now stands at about 5.7 months for all price ranges and for Condos and Single Family Homes combined.

Currently, for Mission Viejo CA (not including Ladera Ranch) there are 403 detached single family homes on the market for sale.  The Median price for these detached homes is $783,000.  The least expensive home is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,279 square foot home and is located in the retirement community called Casta Del Sol and is ranged priced at $499,900 to $519,900.  The most expensive home is 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 3,100 square foot estate in the Tres Vistas tract with a Mission Viejo Lake front view, and is range priced fro $2,299,990 to $2,399,990.

There are 111 detached homes currently in escrow in Mission Viejo.  The median priced home that is sold in escrow is $759,900 and the average price for these homes is $800,000.   The average price per square foot is $410/SqFt and the average days on market is 50 days. The least expensive home In Escrow is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1,279 square foot home in the Casta Del Sold tract, and the most home expensive home under contract (In Escrow) in Mission Viejo, CA is a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 4,253 square foot home for $1,479,000 in the Stoneridge tract.

For the past 3 months, there have been 240 detached homes that have sold and closed escrow in Mission Viejo.  The median price of these sold and closed homes was $752,000 and the average price was $806,394.  The average days on market was 46 days and the average price per square foot was $398/SqFt.  The least expensive home sold was a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1,065 square foot home in Casts Del Sol again, and the most expensive home sold was a 5 bedroom, 5 bath, 5,246 square foot estate in the San Marino tract of Mission Viejo that sold for $2,700,000.

If you would like to view all homes listed for sale in Mission Viejo, just visit our website at:  Mission Viejo Real Estate.

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Affordable Homes in Horsethief Canyon in Corona, CA.

by Vincent Bindi on May 28, 2006

The median price for a home in Orange County, CA. now stands at $628,000 which includes both Condos and detached Houses. And for a detached single family homes the median price now stands at a whopping $750,000.   For those seeking a much more affordable alternative for a detached home that is only 45 minutes from Orange County, there is a beautiful newer master planned community called Horsethief Canyon in south Corona.  The Orange County register recently named Horsethief Canyon the most desirable community in western Riverside County and currently is home to about 8,000 residents.

Horsethief Canyon consists of 1,964 single family homes and was built by Presley Homes. The first home was built in 1988 and construction was completed in 2002′.  The homes range in size from 1,000 square feet up to 2,800 square feet.  Horsethief Canyon was built in the foothills of the Cleveland National forest and the rolling hills provide many home sites with panoramic views.  It’s located in south Corona just of of the 15 Freeway and 14 miles south of 91 Freeway.

There are currently 76 homes active for sale in Horsethief Canyon ranging in price from $425,500 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,281 square foot home built in 1994 and no view, on up to $659,000 for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath 2,794 square foot home with many upgrades and a panoramic view. Our featured home for this article is a model perfect single story home for sale located 27480 Coyote Mesa.  This home consists of 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,639 square feet of living area and boasts of a large backyard with panoramic views of the distant valley and mountains.  This fine home features vaulted ceilings, an open gourmet kitchen with Oak cabinets and stone kitchen counter tops, 18″ Italian tile flooring, newer Berber carpet and much more. The asking price is just $518,000 and a similar home of this age and condition in south Orange County would cost around $800,000.  To view more details about this home for sale, visit:  www.27480CoyoteMesa.com

Horsethief Canyon is governed by the Horsethief Canyon Ranch Homeowners association and boasts of many community facilities, such as: large clubhouse, Volleyball and Tennis courts, Basketball courts, several parks, multiple baseball diamonds, sparkling pool, spa and wading pool and more. The association dues are only $66 per month. Horse Thief Canyon also has it’s own award wining elementary school called Luiseno Elementary. 

For the future, a tunnel, called the TriTunnelExpress, is being proposed from south Corona to south Orange County through the Cleveland National Forest.  This 3 Billion dollar project would reduce the commute from south Riverside County to south Orange County to just 15 minutes and would have a huge positive impact on housing values in Horsethief Canyon and elsewhere in the immediate area.

Solana Homes in Talega, San Clemente

by Karen Fiddler on May 23, 2006

The serene subdivision of Solana in the rolling hills of Talega is located near the end of Avenida Pico, in San Clemente.  Here you will find large newer homes, with elegant exterior architectures and many lots providing  sweeping views. This tract of homes was developed by the respected builder William Lyon Homes and construction began in 2000′ and was completed in 2001′.  This fine subdivision consists of 120 single family detached homes comprising of 5 unique floor plans which are listed below: 

  • Plan 1 - 3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, 1,676 SqFt
  • Plan 2 – 3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, 1,776 SqFt
  • Plan 2 Atl - 3 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, 1,934 SqFt
  • Plan 3 – 3 Bedrooms, 3 Baths, 2,097 SqFt
  • Plan 3 Alt - 5 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, 2,244 SqFt

Each floor plan incorporates a spacious 2 car attached garage, fireplace, interior laundry room and a family room.

Currently, there are 6 homes for sale in Solana in Telaga.  These homes range in price from $825,000 to $939,000.   In the past 6 months there have been 3 home that have sold that ranged in price from $950,000 to $967,000.  The average price per square foot for these 3 sold homes was $427/SqFt.

Solana in Talega is serviced by the award winning Capistrano Unified School District.  The elementary school and middle school is Vista Del Mar.  The upper grades are serviced by San Clemente High School

Talega is just a short drive to the beaches of San Clemente, which has been rated be a national magazine to be ”the best beach town in America”.  This charming and laid back  beach community has been a favorite coastal destination for Orange County residents and other visitors.

If you would like to view all homes for sale in San Clemente or Talega, just visit our website at:  San Clemente Homes for Sale.

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Marinita Townhomes in Dana Point, CA.

by Vincent Bindi on May 18, 2006

Cool ocean breezes awaits at the beautiful  coastal community of Marinita in Dana Point, CA.   This gate guarded community comprises 117 Cape Code Architectural styled 3 Story Townhomes.  This tract was built by two builders in 2 different phases.  Phase I was constructed in the early 1980′s by the Anden Group, and phase II was built in the early 1990′s by Capri Builders. The Anden Group developed 6 stylish floor plans and Capri Builders also developed their own unique 6 floor plans as listed below: 

  • Andover – A……….. 3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,464 SqFt
  • Andover Alt – B….. 3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,334 SqFt
  • Bradford – C……….. 2 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,508 SqFt
  • Bradford Alt- D…… 2 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,542 SqFt
  • Cambridge - E ……. 3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,935 SqFt
  • Cambridge Alt - F .. 2 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,820 SqFt
  • Plan 101 – G…………2 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,470 SqFt
  • Plan 102EU – H……..2 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,470 SqFt
  • Plan 501 – I…………..3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,702 SqFt
  • Plan 502EU – J………3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,702 SqFt
  • Plan 503 – K…………3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,702 SqFt
  • Plan 402 – L………….3 Bdrms, 2.5 Bath, 1,881 SqFt

All Townhomes come with Fireplace, and a 2 car garage.  Marinita is perfect for the active family for the amenities include pool, two spas, tennis courts and is just minutes away from Doheny Beach and Dana Point Harbor.   There are 3 appropriately named streets in Marinita which are Ocean Ridge, Ocean Spray and Ocean Bright

Marinita in Dana Point is serviced by the award wining Capistrano Unified public school district.  The elementary school is Richard Henry, the Junior school is Marco Forester and the upper school is Dana Hills High School.  All of these schools are conveniently close by.  Marinita is located just off of Golden Lantern Blvd and just north of  Stonehill. 

To view all Condos listed for sale in Dana Point, just visit our website at:  Dana Point Condos.

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Kitchen Granite Tops Decor Trends in south Orange County, CA.

by Suzie Bindi on May 14, 2006

I read a Blog article in the RainCityGuide the other day, and I found an interesting article about Granite Kitchen countertop decor trends and how it relates to home sales.  I liked the article so much, that I conducted the same trend research here in the beautiful south OC. 

We conducted a search of the Orange County Multiple Listing Service (MLS) , and searched for all homes and Condos that have sold in south Orange County in the first 4 months of this year and each of the past 4 years.  We counted all of the homes sold in that 4 month period that had Granite Kitchen Countertops only.  We then normalized this data by dividing by the total number of homes sold in that same period, to get a simple percentage… Here is the results our research..

1st 4 months of 2006′
No. of Homes Sold with Granite Counter Tops =  971
Total No. of Homes Sold = 3,780
Percentage with Granite Kitchen Countertops = 25.7%

1st 4 months of 2005′
No. of Homes Sold with Granite Counter Tops =  1060
Total No. of Homes Sold = 5,591
Percentage with Granite Kitchen Countertops = 18.9%

1st 4 months of 2004′
No. of Homes Sold with Granite Counter Tops =  767
Total No. of Homes Sold = 5,204
Percentage with Granite Kitchen Countertops = 14.7%

1st 4 months of 2003′
No. of Homes Sold with Granite Counter Tops =  564
Total No. of Homes Sold = 5,474
Percentage with Granite Kitchen Countertops = 10.3%

1st 4 months of 2002′
No. of Homes Sold with Granite Counter Tops =  450
Total No. of Homes Sold = 5,869
Percentage with Granite Kitchen Countertops = 7.7%

Interesting trend… in first 4 months of 2002′ there were only 7.7% of all homes and condos sold that had Granite Kitchen Counter tops… Today, it’s a whopping 25.6%  ( 1 out of 4 ) of all homes sold with Granite Countertops.  Something to think about if your home is listed for sale and it has not sold and you have an older dated Kitchen… We’ll keep an eye out for other home decor trends and how they relate to sales and post those results in this blog.

If you would like to see all Homes listed for sale in south Orange County, just click here:  Orange County Real Estate

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Save on your Orange County Property Taxes using Prop 60 and 90

by Vincent Bindi on May 4, 2006

Aging Baby boomers… there is great news! No, not Senior Citizen discount meals at Denny’s or reduced lift tickets at Mammoth Mountain… it’s much better then that. If you sell your home in Orange County and buy a replacement home in the OC (or other reciprocal counties), you can maintain your current property tax rate for this replacement home !!! For many of you, that would be a huge property Tax savings year after year. The state law that made this property tax savings possible is called Proposition (Prop) 60 which was passed by Clalifornia voters in 1986. Of course, there are conditions and restrictions that apply as follows.

To qualify for Prop 60, you must be 55 years or older, and it only applies to the sale of your principal home. Vacation homes or rental property do not apply. The replacement home you buy must be at the same or lower value of the home your selling. In addition, I’ve talked with the Orange County Tax Assessor about this issue, and I have heard that the replacement home can even be as high as 5% more then the home being sold.

As you may know, Proposition 13 (Prop 13) which passed in 1978 in the state of California, basically set your Orange County property Taxes to a rate of approximately 1.15% of the purchase price. So if you bought your home 15 years ago for $200,000, your property Taxes today would be about $2,300 per year. Without Prop 60, if you sold this home today for $1,000,000 and downsized a bit and bought an $800,000 replacement home, your new Property Tax bill would be $9,200 per year. If you qualify for Prop 60, in this example your property taxes would remain at $2,300 which would save you $6,900 per year ! (That’s a lot of Denny’s senior citizen meals).

Proposition 90 (Prop 90) was adopted in 1988, and it basically extends Prop 60’s benefits to a home owner who sells an buys in two different California counties, only if the other county outside of Orange County has adopted this county ordinance permitting this transfer to occur. This are generally called reciprocal Prop 90 counties. As of June of 2005′ , there are 7 ‘reciprocal’ counties that haveadopted the Prop 90 ordinance making Prop 60 benefits available to local replacement dwellings, and these 7 counties are: Alameda,  Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Ventura

A few other conditions and restrictions apply such as you have up to two years before or after the sale of the original residence in order to buy a replacement. Also, if you are married, and either the husband or wife are at least age 55 at the date of transfer, then both of you qualify for the property tax saving. These Tax codes do not apply to Mello-Roos, for Mello-Roos is a local community tax bond and is not based upon the purchase price of the property, and does not apply in many areas throughout Orange County.

These (and all other) Property Tax codes are subject to change at any time, so please consult with your Tax advisor before you make a decision to sell or buy a home if you plan to take advantage of Prop 60 and 90. If you have any questions about Prop 60 or 90, or if you would like to view all homes listed for sale in Orange County, fell free to visit the our website at: Orange County Real Estate.

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San Clemente Median and Average Home Prices

by Vincent Bindi on May 2, 2006

Scenic seaside San Clemente, CA. real estate market has been slowing down in the past 4 months, but remains healthy. Currently, there are 306 detached homes active for sale  with a Median Home Price of $1,250,000. (The Median price is considered to me a more accurate representation of real estate prices than the Average price.)  The lowest priced detached home currently for sale in San Clemente is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,100 square foot home for $609,900 located close to Trestles beach. The highest priced home active for sale is 6 bedroom, 8 bath, 7,500 square foot estate priced at $4,400,000 located in Sea Pointe Estates.

There are 82 homes currently under contract (In Escrow) in San Clemente and the Median asking Price is $1,100,000. The average price of these homes is about $1,400,000 and the average price per square foot is about $510/sf, and the average days on market is 70 days. The lowest priced detached home under contract is $719,000 for a 3 bdrm, 1.5 bath, 1,145 square foot property.  The highest priced home in escrow is a 7 bedroom, 8 bath,10,726 square foot estate located in the exclusive ocean front community called Cottons Point Estates, and the asking price is $7 Million.  The ratio of the homes active for sale (306) as compared to the homes sold In Escrow (82) is quick estimate of the Months of Inventory.  Currently, the Months of Inventory is estimated to be 5.6 months which is a Neutral market.

For the past 30 days, there were 49 detached Homes sold and closed Escrow in San Clemente with a median price of $1,050,000 and an average price of  $1,155,663.  The  Average Days on Market was 55 days and the average price per square foot was $517/SqFt.  The least expensive detached home sold in the past 30 days was a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1,581 square foot home in the Villagio tract.  The most expensive property sold was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2,364 square foot custom home in south San Clemente.

The real estate market for San Clemente Attached housing is a bit stronger.  There are 109 attached Condos currently Active for sale in San Clemente and they have been on the market for sale an average of 56 Days. The Average Condo is Priced at $777,031 and the Median asking Price is $649,900.  The average price per square foot is $492.  The lowest priced condominium is a  1 bedroom, 1 bath, 560 square foot condo price at $317,500 in the Vista Pacifica tract.  The highest priced condominium is priced at $3,795,000 for a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 3,108 square foot condo with a panoramic ocean view also in the Vista Pacifica tract.

Today, there are 27 Condos sold In Escrow, and the median price is $612,000. The lowest priced condominium is a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1,002 square foot property on El Camino Real.  The highest price condo in escrow is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 2,386 square foot property with a panoramic ocean view on Arenoso Lane.

In the past 30 days, there have been 24 Condos sold that closed Escrow . The Average price of these Condos were $676,541 and the Average time of Market was 53 Days. The Median Condo price sold in the last 30 days was $602,000 in San Clemente, CA.  The lowest priced condo sold and closed in San Clemente in the past 30 days, is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 495 square foot condo that sold for $330,000 in the Vista Oceana tract. The highest priced condominium sold in the past 30 days, was $1.5 Million for a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, 2,6000 square foot custom built condo with ocean and Catalina island views.   

In summary, although the San Clemente Real Estate market has been slowing down over the past 4 months, it is currently still healthy and the future looks bright. If you would like to search for all San Clemente Real Estate listed for sale, just visit our website at: San Clemente MLS Home Search.

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Ladera Ranch Current Home and Condo Prices

by Vincent Bindi on May 1, 2006

Today in the beautiful master planned community of Ladera Ranch there are 212 Detached homes Active for sale.  The median price of these homes is $1,137,000 and the average price is $1,368,738.   The average price per square foot for these detached houses is $420 and the average days on market is 63 days.   The lowest priced detached home is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1,400 square foot home for $624,900 in The Trails tract,   and the highest priced home is 6 bedroom, 5 bath, 8,441 square foot estate in Covenant Hills priced at $5,900,000.

For all detached homes that have accepted a contract and are pending in Ladera Ranch, there are currently 52 homes In Escrow. The median price of these homes In Escrow is $999,876. The average price per square foot for these homes is $386 and the average Days on Market is 45 days.

For the month of April, 2006′, there have been 30 detached homes that have sold and closed escrow in Ladera Ranch. The median priced detached home sold and closed was $830,000 and the average priced home was $1,026,121.  With the average days on market of 59 days and the average price per square foot was $403. The least expensive home was a 3 bedroom. 2.5 bath, 1,400 square foot home for $605,000 in The Trails tract and the highest priced home was a 5 bedroom, 6.5 bath, 6,108 square foot estate, again in Covenant Hills.  For the month of April for 2005′, there were 47 detached homes sold with a median price of $731,000 for a yearly appreciation rate of 13.5%.

For attached Condominiums, there are 105 Condos currently listed for sale in Ladera Ranch.  The median price for these Condos is $569,900 and the average price is $589,850.  The average price per square foot is $370 and the average days on market is 48.  The lowest priced condo is a 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath 1,100 square foot Condominium priced at $434,900 in the Valmont tract, and the highest price is a $769,999 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2,130 square foot condo in the Bannister Street tract.

On this day, there are 16 Condos sold In Escrow in Ladera Ranch.  The lowest priced condo is 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, with 1,100 square foot in the Valmont tract and the asking price was $420,000.  the highest priced condominium in escrow is 3 bedroom. 2.5 bath, with 2,000 square foot in the Branches tract and was priced at $699,900.  The median price for these condominiums is $540,000.

For the month of April, there were 17 Condos that sold and closed escrow in Ladera Ranch. The lowest price was a 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1,000 square foot condo in the Sansovino tract of Ladera Ranch.  The highest price was a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 1,850 square foot condo with 2 car garage in the Sycamore Grove tract.  The median priced Condo was $516,500 and the average price $521,699.  The average price per square foot was $371 and the average days on market was 39 days.  In April of 2005′, there were 30 Condos sold in Ladera Ranch and the median price was $499,000 which is a 3.5% yearly appreciation rate.

If you would like to view all homes for sale in Ladera Ranch, visit our website at:  Ladera Ranch Real Estate

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