South OC home stats, July 9

Photo of San Clemente sunset by Patrick Powers

The latest DataQuick report posted by the OC Register shows a bump in recent sales, though still slightly below the year-over-year-numbers. We also have talked to some in the real estate biz (good people, not like the shucksters involved with this sketchy property in Santa Ana), and they have been saying there are more first-time buyers out lately.

This makes sense to us, since these kind buyers don't already own a house (so they don't have to worry about selling theirs first) and are buying the types of properties that have been selling lately - lower-priced homes.

Speaking of prices, the medians in general in South OC continue to fall sharply as more have been drawn into the allure of lower prices. We noticed an explosion of sales in Lake Forest, Laguna Hills and RSM in particular. Notice how far values have fallen in each of these areas.

Here are the stats for the 22 business days ending July 9: