Absolutely Stunning Home!
- Beds:
- 2
- Baths:
- 2.5
- Sq ft:
- 1,700
Spectacularly Remodeled Home!
- Beds:
- 5
- Baths:
- 3
- Sq ft:
- 3,035
Must Sell Condo on the Water!
- Beds:
- 2
- Baths:
- 2
- Sq ft:
- 1,586
Meet Jody Clegg
First Team Real Estate agent Jody Clegg could very well be one of the hardest working agents in Orange County. In the last two years she has closed escrow on 141 homes and reached a sales volume of $150 million. If you judged her by numbers alone, you’d assume she is backed by an arsenal Read More…
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Warren Buffett Says He’d Buy a Couple Hundred Thousand Homes!
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said yesterday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that buying single-family homes is such a great investment right now, if it were practical, he’d buy a couple hundred thousand of them. Given how low rates are for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (3.95 percent, according to the Freddie Mac Mortgage Index), Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick that homes, held over the long term, provide a better investment than stocks. If you factor in that prices in some areas are at a 10-year low and inventory levels are high, the conditions are ideal for buying.
While the “Omaha Oracle” has been right about a lot of investments, his opinion on housing hasn’t always been on the mark. At last year’s annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting, he said 2011 was going to be the year that housing prices were going to rebound. In a letter to his shareholders sent last weekend, he apologized for being “dead wrong.” He explained his belief that housing is a sound investment at least in part the inventory of new homes isn’t growing at a rate that will satisfy future demand. People living with their in-laws to save money, he quipped, will find that attractive for only so long.
You have to give Buffett credit for putting his money where his mouth is. Home Services of America Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway Affiliate, is one of the largest independent residential real estate and settlement servicing companies in the U.S. While Buffett wouldn’t comment completely on Berkshire Hathaway’s stake with each of the banks, the fund actively invests in them. He says if he could own only one bank stock right now, it would be Wells Fargo.
Sizzle Back in Surf City Housing?
By JONATHAN LANSNER
Every two weeks, Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com publishes a study of the supply of local homes for sale. Here’s what the latest report — as of November 10 — details about Huntington Beach …
- By Thomas’s math, this community has a “market time” (months in would take to sell all inventory at current pace of new escrows) of 3.32 months vs. 3.70 months found two weeks earlier vs. 4.32 months seen a year earlier. Countywide, latest market time was 3.27 months vs. 4.18 months a year ago.
- So, homes in this community sell — in theory — in 1% more time than the countywide pace.
- Of the homes listed for sale in this community, 172 were either foreclosures being resold or short sales, where sellers owe more than the home’s value. So distressed properties were 31.0% of supply of homes for sale vs. 36.6% countywide.
- Homes for sale in Huntington Beach represent 5.8% of Orange County inventory — and 4.9% of all the distressed homes listed for sale in Orange County. New escrows here are 5.7% of all Orange County’s new pending sales.
Compare these trends to countywide patterns:
- Cities with highest level of distressed properties among their listings? Portola Hills was tops — 75.0% — followed by Rancho Santa Marg. at 68.9% of listings and Ladera Ranch at 66.7% of listings.
- Fewest? Corona Del Mar was tops — 3.8% — followed by Seal Beach at 5.2% of listings and Laguna Woods at 7.6% of listings.