Despite the high mortgage rate environment eroding home affordability, home values in Orange County have been on the rise after bottoming in December.

Housing’s Summer Market has arrived, and with it comes an increase in inventory, a slight decrease in demand, and a rise in the market time.

From YouTube to TikTok to the Backyard Barbecue, there are plenty of narratives regarding pending doom for housing that the underlying data does not support.

With the number of available homes to purchase at extremely low levels, there simply are too many buyers competing against each other despite high mortgage rates.

A Seller’s Market …when the Expected Market Time drops below 40 days, the housing market leans heavily in favor of sellers.

Before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silver Bank in March, mortgage rates were just above 7%. Since then, rates have fallen…

Low Supply and Multiple Bids

Market Times have dropped like a rock since the start of the year, squeezed by not enough sellers.

Lack of FOR-SALE Signs in the past few years, there has been a severe inventory crisis initially instigated by the pandemic and now due to the high mortgage rate environment. Since the pandemic, there have not been enough homes available, and 2023 is no different.

It’s all about the rates in the housing market, from the number of homeowners willing to sell to the volume of buyers able to afford to purchase.

After an extremely slow end to 2022, buyers are returning to the housing market. Demand is already up sharply, and market times are plunging fast. It is important to keep in mind, demand is pretty shallow for this time of year, 23% less than last year and 38% below the 3-year average before Covid (2017-2019).

Regardless of the economic situation, without fail housing revs its enormous economic engine and the market heats up during the Winter Market, from mid-January to midMarch. Last year the inventory of available homes hit a record low and by mid-January, there were only 1,080 homes on the market.